


Alpha and Omega

by zacklover24



Series: Alpha and Omega [1]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Alpha Arthur Maxson, Alpha Cait, Alpha Edward deegan, Alpha John Hancock, Alpha McCready, Alpha Paladin Danse, Alpha preston garvey, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood and Injury, Blood and Violence, Canon Rewrite, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Forgiveness, Gen, M/M, Manipulation, Multi, Omega Jack Cabot, Omega Kent connolly, Omega Piper Wright, Omega Sole Survivor, Omega Struges, Omega Synth Curie, Past Abuse, Slow Burn, lying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-11
Updated: 2020-09-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:55:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 26
Words: 44,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22657393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zacklover24/pseuds/zacklover24
Summary: The Brotherhood of Steel collects and protects omegas. Ever since Roger maxson became the first elder his wish was to keep all omegas be they Brotherhood of Steel  or not safe, along with there original goal, collect and perverse technology.   Every maxson  born is an alpha, the top alpha, and arthur is no different. However he can’t pick omega, none of the possible candidates were right for him. To loyal, willing to please him, to everything that he could not stand. The burden of elder was getting to him. Danse offered that maybe it was time for a small break, so he did. And now he was in the commonwealth, and then he met her, Angel his omega.
Relationships: Arthur Maxson/Female Sole Survivor, Arthur Maxson/Sole Survivor, Jack Cabot/Edward Deegan, John Hancock & Nick Valentine
Series: Alpha and Omega [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1763659
Comments: 14
Kudos: 59





	1. Chapter 1

Angel took in a deep and shaky breath as she shank to the floor next to the cryo pod. He was dead, her uncle, the man who raised her, the man who never once hit or belittled her, the man who taught her not to take shit from anyone. That man was dead, shot through the head. The man was a stranger, Angel didn’t know him or the woman. They killed her uncle, and for what Shaun? Why did they want that brat? He was nothing, just a brat who got everything handed to him.

“Fuck.” Angel hissed as she looked down at the item in her hand, her uncle’s tag. “I can’t, I can’t stay here.” She whispered as she stood, trying to catch her breath. She was shaky on her legs, like a newborn fawn. This was fucked up, this whole thing was a fucked up mess.

Angel had no idea how long she had been down in the vault, but she knew she had to get out here. As she explored she found nothing, but death. The people in the pods were dead, there skeletons, she found a baton and killed some giant cockroaches. 

“Well this isn’t a good sign.” Angel mutters as she killed the cockroaches, and poked around the vault. There were no humans left alive, they died or were killed, something happened here. And she didn’t want to find out what that was. But, thankfully she came to the overseer's room and lockers, all the stuff the staff took when they entered the vault. Including her canvas army green backpack.

“Oh thank you God.” Angel mutters, finding her uncle’s old clothes. Her uncle was an alpha, unlike Angel, who was omega. And as an unmated omega she got so much unwanted attention, then an alpha would. It was annoying, but as her uncle once told her wearing alphas clothes would mask her sencet.

“Looks like they didn’t take anything, which is good.” She softly says pulling on her jeans, but her uncle’s old red shirt, and his army jacket, and boots and fingerless glove. Along with the clothes, she found that her backpack thankfully still had her sketchbook, hard, and soft pastels, charcoal pencils, her canteen, and room to spare, for all the clothes she still needed to stuff in there. 

“As much I hated going to Bar Harbor I’m thankful that I packed all these clothes in here.” As she looked through the stuff that was left behind, when she found a pleasant surprise.

It was her uncle’s gun belt, with two gun holsters, and m1911 pistol, “Holy hell.” She mutters putting the gun into the holster along with six boxes of .45 rounds, and as she looked to the desk she found a 10mm pistol with a few boxes of ammo. While she was at the desk, she looked to the terminal and overruled the security lock down, and after holersting the pistol she left the office. At the vault entrance there were more dead people and pip boy.

“God this is fucking morbid.” Angel mutters putting the pip boy on her arm, “God damnit.” Using the pip boy, Angel left the vault.  
************************************************************************************************************************************************************  
“Miss. Angel I would feel more at ease if you took me.” Cogsworth insisted a few days later, after she left the vault.

“Cogsworth,” She starts to say then winced hard as she did her pastel blue hair up into a bun, “I’m going to be fine, I’ll have dogmeat with me.” The mirror on the vanity was cracked and dirty but it was doing its job.

“Mum, the Commonwealth is nothing like it was before the bombs dropped.” Cogsworth tells her. “It's positively dangerous for a young omega to go alone.”

“I know.” She reminds him, as she let out a sigh, her gaze went to the window and to Preston. 

It was only a few days since she left the vault, and found the world outside to be nothing as she remembered. Cogsworth had pointed her to Concord, and after Angel told him that Shaun was missing. She didn’t have the heart to tell him about her uncle. On her way to Concord she met dogmeat, a friendly dog. 

Concord was where she killed a human for the first time, and then she killed the riders, got the fusion core, and helped Preston. From there she was told to go to Diamond City. But, Preston insisted that she stay a few days. It was obvious he was an alpha, but as Angel watched him portal sanctuary, she had to wonder if he ever slept. Struges told her something bad happened to them in Quincy. Whatever that bad thing was Preston was trying not to let it effect whatever that was, as he whistled as he walked by. During her time in Sanctuary mama Murphy told her that the key to finding her uncle’s killer was a man from her past. But, be warned this man was not how she remembered him. 

“Mum please let me come with you.” Cogsworth pleaded with her, as Angel picked up the black bandana, “It’s not safe to go alone.” 

“And I told you I’m not going alone.” As she tied the bandana around her head hiding her hair, “Dogmeat is going to be with me.” 

“Mum, the wasteland is not safe of an omega.” Cogsworth finally says again, as Angel let out a sigh before putting on the army hemelt. The hemelt was too big, and it smelled funky, and on the side were the letters MP, with fort hagen written on the inside. 

“Cogsworth, stop. I’m leaving for this diamond city.” Angel tells him puting the gun belt on, “I’m going, and there is nothing you can do to stop me.” 

Cogsworth did his best to sigh, “If you won’t let me come with you mum, can you at least take some purified water and rations?” He requests almost pleading with her. 

“That I will do.” Angel tells him with a smile, Cogsworth seemed to be happy as he left and came back with rations and filled up her round canteen himself, “The real reason I want you to stay is help out here in sanctuary.” She tells him with a smile. 

“Oh?” Cogsworth asks, as Angel checked her guns, before putting them into the holsters. 

“There going to need your help to build the water purifier.” She tells him. 

“Oh mum.” Cogsworth tells her sounding happy, “I will do my best.” 

“That is all I ask.” Angel tells him with a smile, as she was checking to make sure she had everything. “Why do I feel like I'm forgetting something?” 

“A sleeping bag mum?” Cogsworth says floating over with something, it was the sleeping bag in question. It was a thermal sleeping bag along with a pillow sheet and blanket. Not that she knew that. Cogsworth was sweet enough to roll the pillow into the sleeping bag before handing it to her.

“Thanks Cogsworth.” 

End of line


	2. Chapter 2

Angel woke with a slight start, and a groan. And then went still, and then she relaxed as she winced, as she reached down to rub her leg. She sat up as quietly as she looked around. Danse and Lyons were sleeping in the other room. The desks had been pushed to the side to accomand both men. Rhys, Haylen and Angel were sleeping in the main room. Angel had pushed her sleeping bag so it was in the doorway leading to the locker room.

And then it hit her, she was in the police station in Cambridge, she had helped the two paladins Danse and Lyons out by getting the deep range transmitter from arcjet, she was more than happy to go on her way after Danse gifted her a laser rifle that he named righteous authority. Hell she had plenty of fusions cells for it. Thanks to all the synths that they killed. But fate had other ideas, it seemed that one of the synths had shot Angel in the leg, she didn’t nocite. It wasn’t until she was leaving that Danse had caught her. 

“I can walk.” She hissed at him as she swatted his hands away, as she sat on the ground. Angel grimaced as she looked down at her leg, there was a nasty third degree burn. “How come I didn't notice this till now?” 

“You were in the middle of an adrenaline rush.” Lyons points out as he walked over to check on the burn, “Your body numbed the pain, but now that we are out of danger, your recognizing the pain.” 

“Well fuck.” Angel hisses, she didn’t have her first aid kit that was in her bag but at the police station she should have brought that with her, “Well double fuck, looks I’m going back to the station with you boys.” 

“Seems like it.” Danse tells her, as Angel was looking for something. “Looking for something?” 

“Yes, I want to cover this. Can’t let it get infected after all.” Angel tells him with a smile, she couldn’t find any cloth that looked halfway decent. Most of the cloth in the building behind them was dirty and she was not risking an infection. Well nothing that she was sure would get her sick if she used it. 

“Here.” Lyons says handing Angel some cloth, she wasn’t sure where it came from but it looked clean and that was all that mattered to Angel, shortly wrapped her leg up and was ready to go. It was slow going, due to Angel’s injury. 

When they finally did get back to the station it was nightfall. Those both Danse and Lyons had offered to carry her. 

“Fuck that.” Angel tells them turning down the offer each time they asked. 

Haylen and Rhys were happy to see that all three of them were back. Rhys was not happy that Angel was staying the night but shut up when both Lyons and Danse told him to knock it out. Angel had asked about dogmeat, and she found him wandering around the second floor, doing whatever it was dogs did. 

“I can treat that wound for you.” Haylen tells Angel as she was pointing to Angel wound. As the men were talking about there next plan, which involved dinner and setting up the power armour in front of the front and back doors. Seemed like they didn't want anything getting in during the night.

“Thank you.” Angel tells her, as they moved to the back where the desks were. Angel hopped onto a desk and undid the cloth on her burn. Haylen let out a hum as she pulled out two jars from her bag, one was honey, and the other,

“Is that calendula cream?” Angel asks as Haylen applied the soft yellow cream to Angel’s burn, she let out a small hiss as the cold creamed was applied to the burn. 

“It is, good eye. The brotherhood uses herbs to help with minor wounds like this.” Haylen explains as she applied the honey, and then bandged it up. “There good as new.” 

“Huh thank you. I was thinking about it. I’m going to stay the night and maybe help out tomorrow, if I can.” Angel tells Haylen as she rubbed the back of her head.

Haylen gave her a weak and tired smile, 

“Thank you. We do apprentice any help given the journey here has been a hard one.” Angel felt that something had gone wrong or a lot of shit had gone wrong, but she didn’t press the matter. Once Angel’s leg was taken care of she told Lyons and Danse that she was staying the night and she would be helping out with whatever she could. Rhys wasn’t happy but didn’t voice his complaints.   
************************************************************************************************************************************************************  
Angel laid awake in her sleeping bag, with dogmeat resting at her feet. She checked her pipboy and the time was five am, the sky was still dark and the brotherhood members were still asleep. 

“Perfect time to get a shower in.” Angel whispers to dogmeat, who took that as his queue to get off her. Angel pulled out a fresh set of clothes and headed to the showers. Oh she knew that the showers were going to be cold as fuck, but it was a shower. One very cold shower later, Angel was dressed minus her helmet and jacket. Her hair was safely tucked back under the bandana.

As Angel rounded the corner from the locker room, she nearly jumped out of her skin. Lyons was awake and he was standing behind the reception desk. They looked eyes for a moment, as he bowed his head and got to doing something. If Angel had to hazard a guess he was looking at a map.

Angel was having a hard time getting a read on the man, he was an alpha, like Danse, and Rhys but there was something about him. For starters, unlike Danse and Rhys the man wore a black jumpsuit. He had light brown hair and that had been cut to be an undercut, unlike Danse whose hair was dark brown and short, and Rhys whose hair was shaved giving him a buzz cut. Lyons also had piercing blue eyes, had a full blown bread and a nasty scar on his face. It looked like he got into a fight with something nasty and won. But that wasn’t what got her, Lyons scent was complaining Angel’s. Lyons smelled of rum and chocolate which complement Angel’s due her scent being lavender and vanilla. 

“You're up early.”Angel whispers as she puts her stuff away, and starts to look for something that was in her bag.

“I’m always up this early.” Lyons quickly tells her, “Why are you up?” 

“Couldn’t sleep anymore.” Angel tells him as she pulled out her first aid kit and quickly bandged her burn up and pulled out some beef jerky. Sturges had given her a lot of beef jerky, saying it was better than anything else out in the wasteland. From what Jun told her Struges made the jerky himself. “Want some?” She asks moving to stand next to him. 

Lyons eyed the jerky before taking a peice, “Thank you.” 

“Welcome, so I was right.” Angel happily says, with a grin. Lyons was looking at a map of the area. Lyons didn’t give so much of a reaction as he ate the jerky, “What are you looking for anyway?” 

“You remember the fearls from yesterday?” He asks, as Angel could only nod her head and shutter, “Danse and myself were trying to pinpoint where they came from.” 

“Any clue as to where they came from?” Angel asks him nibbling on the jerky. 

“We think so,” As he pointed to a point on the map, Angel’s eyes went wide, he was pointing to college square station, “We think we know where they are coming from.” 

“That does make sense.” Angel softy and sadly tells him, “I guess the people thought that they would be safe from the bombs down there.” 

“If it helps,” Lyons says placing a hand on her shoulder, Angel went tense at the contact and Lyons was quick to remove his hand, “If it helps there no longer human.” 

“It does in a way, is that strange?” Angel asks him with a small smile. 

“No, we tend to think of them as beasts.” Lyons tells her. 

“If we know where they are coming from, why don’t we go and take them out?” Angel tells him with a gleam in her eye, “Wouldn't it be easier for the two of us to go down there and wipe them out?”

“I’m sorry what?” He asks wide-eyed as Angel ate the last of her jerky, and put on her jacket and helmet. 

“We go to college square station and take care of the rest of the fearls. Shouldn’t be too hard with the two of us.” She signed songs out softly as she checked over righteous authority. 

“I don’t think that it's a wise idea.” Lyons firmly tells her. 

Angel rolled her eyes, “Wise idea or not it’s the best one we got. The sooner the fearls are taken care of, the better right?” She asks and then a sly smile appeared on her face, “And we can leave a note for Danse if your worried.” 

“I’m not worried about Danse.” 

“Then what are you waiting for?” She asks with a gleam in her eye.  
************************************************************************************************************************************************************  
Soon the pair along with dogmeat were off to college square. Lyons did leave a note for Danse, saying they were going to college station square. The walk to college square was quiet and eerie. It made Angel miss the old days.

“This place is eerily void of life.” Angel comments, as they walked down the road. In the past Cambridge was brimming with life, now it was an empty husk of itself, with crumbling buildings, and makeshift camps.

“The bombs, the radiation, the fallout, the super mutants, raiders and the fearls took care of anything living.” Lyons tells her, Angel guessed it was supposed to be comforting but through the hemelt it came off dry and unfeeling.

“Well you're cheerful.” Angel drly comments, “But wouldn’t the raiders call this place home, or did something happen to them?” 

“We’ll soon find out.” Lyons tells her as they came to the station entrance. But Angel didn’t go down right away, she found something that bugged her. There were dead bodies of raiders and fearls all over the ground and they looked fresh. Well maybe not fresh but a few days old. Something wasn’t right. 

“ANGEL!” Lyons yells from the bottom of the stairs, along with dogmeat barking. 

“Coming.” Angel yells back, she took the steps two at a time, almost hitting Lyons as she did. The paladin didn’t say anything as they went in. The pair and the dog, were met with a shock. On the ground were dead fearls. 

“So job done?” Angel jokes looking around finding a skeleton in the elevator, and on the counter was a silver container, and she sat her rifle down as well. As she popped open the container, she saw nuka cola caps. Why would? And then she remembered, what Preaston told her. Caps were the currency of the wasteland, she poured the caps into her jacket pocket and didn't think much of it.

“Not quite.” Lyons hum as he looked around, “Seems that the raiders here made last stance.” 

“What do you… holy hell.” Angel gasps seemed as there were two dead raiders. “What the hell?” 

“Looks like the raiders were cleaning out of the station, they got overwhelmed, and died. These two put up a last stand. If I were you, I would salvage there leather armour.” Lyons tells her, Angel grimaced at him, “Leather armour is light and common it’s better than nothing.” 

“You sure about that?” Angel asks him with a look of disbelief. 

“Yes.” It was a curt answer. 

“Right then.” Angel mutter pulling off her jacket and bag. 

“I’m going ahead, join me when you're done.” Lyon orders leaving her with dogmeat. 

Angel didn’t give him a verbal answer as she flipped him off. Angel grimaced as she pulled the armour off of the dead body. The armour if you wanted to call it that was a two axillary and shoulder protectors. A bandoleer with three pockets holds up a midriff carry belt and a waist utility belt with a carry pouch, five spare bullets, and three more ammunition pouches on the back. It also had a set of protective knee and elbow pads and guards for the forearms and shins.

“Well this awful.” Angel tells dogmeat who let out a bark of agreement., Angel pulled on her jacket and then frowned and let out a groan at the sound coming from her jacket pocket. The caps were clinking together, this wouldn’t do. Angel looked around the dead bodies, she found more caps and then she got an idea. She opened one of the punches on the belt and put the caps in them. 

“Alright let’s go find Lyons.” Angel tells dogmeat, who had her rifle in his mouth, she took the gun from him with a smile. She forgot that she sat it down on the counter. Dogmeat let out a happy bark, as he walked down the stairs, heading down to the loading platform. 

The bottom level of the station was the worst. The bomb shockwave really did a number on the floor, the ceiling and walls. The floor had more dead raiders, but there were no living ghouls or Lyons.

“LYONS!” Angel calls walking past the bathrooms, “Hey Lyons where are you? How the fuck do I loose a guy wearing power armour?” Angel asks dogmeat. As she poked around, she took a pause. On one of the counters was a symbol monkey.

“Who the fucks put a symbol moneky down here?” She asks dogmeat, who was growling, Angel ignored him and walked past the monkey. The monkey sprang to life, the eyes lit up and started to play its symbols. 

“What the?” Angel whispers, and then froze. Out of the darkness she could hear inhuman growling and moaning, right before the fearls sprang up, and charged her. Angel moved backwards trying not to get hit by a fearl. She ran backwards, and opened the door to the mens room, unleashing another fearl.

“Shit.” Angel hisses as the fearls started to swarm her, a bold ghoul launched itself at her but was quickly put down. Angel looked to see Lyons, standing at the entrance of the women's bathroom. Angel had a comment but chose not to say anything as she took aim and killed the ghouls that were starting to swarm them. Soon the fearls were dead.

“That, that, that was something.” Angel mutters as she sat down on the stairs, panting. 

“Are you alright?” Lyon asks her, as Angel could only shake her head, “You need to be more careful.” 

“Yes, because I would know that the damn symbol monkey would summon the ghouls!” She yells at him, “I’m still new to this!” 

“I should have given you more warning.” 

“You think?” Angel asks hissing at him, “Crap. They love to swarm don’t they?” 

“That they do.” 

Angel smirked and pulled out two nuka cola quantums from her bag, “Here.” As she tossed him one of the sodas. 

“Thank you.” 

“Welcome.” 

End of line


	3. Chapter 3

“So let me try this straight you left the police station without orders, went to the train station and took out the fearl ghouls?” Danse slowly asks Angel and Lyons. Angel and Lyond made it back to the station, no residence from raiders or ghouls. They chatted a little, and Angel was starting to slowly warm up to him.

Angel looked to Lyons then to Danse, “Don't get mad at Lyons I talked him into going. I thought if we took out the nest then it would be less of an issue for us, I mean you. I'm still not sure if I want to join or not.” Angel explains.

Danse gave Angel a stern look, as he looked to Lyons, “Is this true?” 

“Yes.” Lyons tells him, “She wanted to act without orders.” 

“I was just trying to help sir.” Angel mumbles out.

Danse let out a sigh as he pitched the bridge of his nose, “You are both very lucky that you didn't die.” 

“I wanted to try help sir. I thought if we went after them first then you wouldn’t have to worry about them.” Angel tells Danse, “Don’t blame Lyons it was all on me.” 

Danse sighed again. “I appreciate the honesty, I do. But, Lyons should have known better.” 

“Sir,” Angel starts to say but was cut off by Danse. 

“You both did a good thing by taking out the fearls, but don’t do something like this again.” Danse warns the pair. 

“Yes.” Both Angel and Lyon say at the same time. 

“Good, Angel how’s your leg?” Danse asks as Angel just blinked at him in confusion. 

“It’s fine. The stuff that Haylen put on it really helped.” Angel tells him with a smile. 

“I’m glad.” Danse responds, “Lyons with me, were going on portal around the area.” Lyons nodded his head, and the two left the building, with dogmeat following after them. 

“Is he always like that?” Angel asks Haylen as she sat down on her sleeping bag. 

“Who Danse? Not always. You guys did do something really dumb.” Haylen comments as Angel started to remove the armour. Angel wrinkled her nose in disgust when she smelled the armour.

“This stuff stinks, I’m not sure if it’s the raiders BO or the ghouls awful stench.” Angel mutters while cracking her neck. 

Haylen started to laugh, “So want me to look at your leg?” 

“If you want, I treated it before me and Lyons left.” Angel tells her rolling up her pants leg, and undoing the bandages, the burn looked alot better. 

Haylen let out a hum as she looked the burn over, “If we keep applying and treating the wound with the honey and calendula cream you should be fine a few weeks. It doesn’t hurt, does it?” 

“No, I didn’t feel anything.” Angel tells her as Haylen applied some fresh honey calendula cream to the burn. 

“Good, in a few weeks it should be all healed up.” Haylen tells her with a smile. 

“Well good, I guess I can help here while my leg heals up.” Angel tells her. 

“And be a drain on our supplies.” Rhy spits out, as he came out from wherever he was hiding, “Were struggling as is, and now we have to worry about you.” 

“What the hell.” Angel hisses at the alpha, “What is your issue with me?” 

“Your an unwanted omega who came stumbling in from the wasteland, and paladin Danse just accepts you like that?” Rhys asks snapping his fingers, “And now you're going to be stuck here while that leg heals draining our already limited supplies.” 

“Your a fucking asshole.” Angel tells him as she flipped him off, “And if it wasn’t for me you would be dead from fearls.” She reminds him, “Who knows I might just leave now and hope you die.” 

“You can’t leave.” Haylen tells her, “Your burn might get infected if you do.” 

“So what? Not like mister I have the sensitivity of a rock cares.” Angel hisses as she flopped backwards onto her sleeping bag. 

“I would care, and so would Danse.” Haylen tells her as Angel let out a grunt. Angel let out a sigh, as Rhy and Haylen started to bricker, she reached over to her bag and pulled out her sketch pad and charcoals. And as they fought she went up to the roof.   
************************************************************************************************************************************************************  
Even though it had been two hundred and ten years, the view from the roof was more or less the same. Sure the landscape had changed greatly, but it was still peaceful to look at it, and draw. Angel took in a deep breath as she opened her pad up and started to draw. She drew the blown out and ruined buildings, the damaged roads and left and forgot about cars, and the nature that was slowly retaking the city. 

“It’s not how I remember it.” Angel whispers as she went about changing or adding details to the sketch. Back before the war, she would come and visit Nick, at the station. Every day after school, she would come and work.

The man always had something for her to do, and it kept her out of trouble. The months and weeks before the bombs dropped were scary. Walking home alone got to be dangerous, and Ken her uncle forbade her from going out at night. Too many alpha were getting bold and attacking omegas. Nick was the only non family alpha he trusted. 

“I hope he did okay.” Angel whispers smudging in the trees giving them a dying look. 

“Angel?” Danse calls, nearly making Angel jump out of her skin and almost fall off the roof. Danse was quick to act and grabbed the back of her shirt pulling her away from the edge. 

“Shit.” Angel swears as she could feel her heart beating a mile mintue, “How the fuck did you do that?” As she saw that he was not in power armour, well that explains it. 

“Are you alright?” Danse asks as Angel could only let out a snort. 

“Yea, yea, I’m fine. Just got lost in my own world while I was drawing I guess. So what can I do for you?” She asks sitting back down. 

“I talked with Haylen.” 

“About?” She asks starting to smudge some more of the details in the drawing. 

“About your desire to leave, that would be ill advised with your leg still injured.” 

Angel let out a snort as she drew a rather harsh line into the sketch, “Well I don’t want to be a drain on your limited supplies.” Angel dryly tells him in a mocking tone. 

Danse let out a sigh as he moved to sit next to Angel, “Rhys isn’t in charge I am, and if I say you can stay then you can stay. Second Lyons and myself talked about it, and we both agree that you stay here for a time.”

“Why?” 

“So we can teach how to better survive out in the wasteland.”

“I was doing just fine before I met you.” Angel snaps, she took in a deep breath, “Sorry.” 

“Don’t be. I understand you want your independence. But, please let me and Lyons help you.” 

“You're not going to let this matter go are you?” Angel asks him, with a half a smile. 

“Afraid not.” 

“Fine, I guess I can stay then. Just so I can learn to better survive.” 

End of line


	4. Chapter 4

“Hey Lyons!” Angel calls from above the paladin. 

“Yes, Angel.” Lyons calls back, as the young vault dweller head appeared over the edge of the platform. 

“Hyalen said she wanted this biometric scanner thing right?” She asks holding the object question in sight of the paladin. 

“Yes.” Lyon tells her, as Angel beamed at him.

“Oh good, because it's the only one here, catch.” Angel yells throwing the scanner down to him. Lyons caught the scanner with little ease as he put the item into the bag he brought, “I don’t know why she sent us all the way out to Bedford station for that thing.” 

“It was probably the closest location for the scanner. Are you coming down?” Lyons asks as Angel let out a sigh. 

“Yea, yea, hold on.” Angel tells him as she jumped down from the platform. 

“You need to be more careful.” Lyon scolds as Angel rolled her eyes, “Do you want to reinjury your leg.” 

“No.” Angel tells him, as he held out his hand, “You know I can walk.” 

“You were the one who was complaining about nearly tripping over the jacket on the walk here.” 

Angel let out a snort as she placed her hands on her hips, “Well I wouldn’t have to complain if you didn’t give me this damn jacket!” She snaps at him. 

“I wouldn’t have to loan you my jacket, if you had a better one to wear!” He snaps back. 

“There was nothing wrong with my jacket.” 

“If you haven’t realised yet, the Commonwealth is going through a cold snap, one you were under prepared for. I was only trying to help.” Lyon simply reminds her, as he held his hand out again, and then Angel started to laugh. 

“Christ.” As she took the hand and she sat pretty on his shoulder, “Welp this inst awkward or anything.” 

“Seeing as this our fifth time, doing this.” Lyons reminded her as they started to head back to the police station. Angel let out a hum as she pulled the jacket closed. Angel had been with the brotherhood for a few weeks, waiting for her leg to heal up before she left. Everything was fine, she and Lyons had been growing close, and getting close to Danse and Haylen, and her desire to punch Rhys was getting stronger and stronger with each day that passed. 

“Where did you get this jacket anyway?” Angel asks looking at the jacket, it was a heavy padded brown leather coat with the Brotherhood insignia displayed on the right shoulder. And the only reason why she was wearing the jacket was due to a random cold snap hitting the Commonwealth. 

“I had it made before we came to the Commonwealth.” Lyons tells her. 

Angel let out a huh, as she rested her hand against the power armour helmet. “I have to tell you something.” 

“What is it?” Lyon asks stopping and killing a fearl dog, the dog let out a dying whine as it fell to the ground, Angel wrinkled her nose as he picked it up and slung it over his arm. 

“I told you the day we met that I was from a vault, but the truth is everyone in my vault is dead.” Angel tells him, it was hard to tell through the armour but she was pretty sure he went stiff, “And that’s not all. The vault was being used for cryogenic suspended animation, I was there the day the bombs dropped.” Angel whispers. 

Lyons was in shock as Angel spock there was no this was possible, but he had to remind himself, Vault tec was vile. The vaults back in the Capital wasteland were just as bad as those here. Lyons spoke his next slowly and carefully, “What do you remember from that day?” 

“Everything,” Angel whispers as her gaze shifted to the sky, “That day, I was home with my uncle Ken and my brother Shaun. We were running late to go visit my grandparents in Bar Harbor. I was doing some last minute packing when the sirens went off. I grabbed my things and we ran. We ran, and ran, and my lungs were burning by the time we got to the vault. We ran some more to the door of the vault, and right as they were sending us down I saw it. A mushroom cloud, it got hot and air was ripped upwards and my uncle pulled me close to shield me. I was too afraid to even look at the damage. A doctor led us to the cryo pods and then I was out.” 

“What happened next?” Lyons asks her, his voice was low. 

“I was awakened. This man, he was bald with a large scar on his face with these two people in hazmat suits, the man with the scar shot and killed my uncle and I was powerless to stop him. I screamed and yelled and banged on the pod, while the woman took Shaun. I was weak.” Angel admits, trying not to cry. 

“Your not weak Angel.” Lyons tells her, “You were powerless but not weak.” 

“I feel weak, and alone.” Angel tells him, “And I can’t stop being afraid.” 

“Fear is normal, fear means your human. Fear makes you strong.” Lyons tells her. “I don’t want you to be afraid any more.” 

“Nothing you can do Lyons.” Angel tells him with a sigh, “Nothing any of us can do.” 

‘ _There might be’_ Lyons thinks, as the rest of the walk was done with minimal talking. 

************************************************************************************************************************************************************

They arrived back at the station as the sun was setting, painting the sky in hues of yellow, oranges, pinks and purple. 

“So your positive I can’t punch Rhys?” Angel asks jumping down from Lyons shoulder. 

“Positive.” Lyons confirms as Angel scowled and went in. 

“Were back.” Angel announces to Danse, Rhys and Haylen.

“Welcome back.” Haylen warmly greets, “Did you find the scanner?” 

“Yup, Lyons has it.” Angel chirps as she went over to the little nest that was in the center of the main room. It was odd, the cold snap rolled in a few days ago and the best solution that the brotherhood came up was platonically sharing heat or Danse at one side, Lyons on the other with Rhys, Angel and Hyalen in the middle, with all the blankets they had piled on top. Angel sat in the middle of her sleeping bag, as she thought back to when Danse first told her this.

************************************************************************************************************************************************************

_“Please tell me your fucking with me.” Angel all but whines as Haylen was spreading out the sheets that they had onto the floor._

_“Were not.” Haylen tells her with a sharp tone of voice, “It’s just till the cold snaps goes away.”_

_“How long will that be?” Angel asks crossing her arms over her chest with a huff._

_“Hard to say.” Danse tells her starling Angel, christ the man was quite when he was outside of his power armour, he was carrying over the sleepings bags that, he, Rhy, Haylen and Lyons had been using, “The police station doesn’t have heat, and it’s to much of a risk to build a fire.”_

_Angel shifted her weight from foot to foot, as Danse opened up all the sleeping bags including her’s and laying down on top of the sheets, as she was biting her lip._

_“Oh I think she’s nervous.” Rhys fake cooes._

_“Fuck you.” Angel snaps at the knight._

_“Enough,” Danse all but snaps as Angel flinched, “Angel are you alright?”_

_Angel rubbed the back of her neck, “Yes, no, maybe. I’ve never really been that close to an alpha before.” She tells him rubbing her arm._

_Danse shared a look with Haylen, “Would you feel better if you Haylen slept next to you?”_

_“A little I think. Thank you.”_

_“Your welcome.”_

_Angel wasn’t ready to go to bed that night. She was sandwiched between Lyons and Haylen, with Rhys on the other side of Haylen and Danse at the other end. Angel tried to fall asleep, but it was hard. She had never been this close to an alpha who wasn’t family. It wasn't like Angel didn’t like Lyons. She loved his scent of rum and chocolate, but this was freaking her out. Angel turned her back to Lyons and tried to settle in, when she went stiff. Lyons had tossed his arm over her waist. Angel heart sped up, she could almost hear it hammering against her chest. But, Lyons didn’t do anything, he gently pulled her close, as if trying to keep her warm. Angel relaxed, he wasn’t going to do anything, just trying to keep her warm._

**********************************************************************************************************************************************************

Angel flopped backwards onto her sleeping back, if she was lying Angel would say she hated it. But she would be lying. She didn’t mind the extra, warmth and heat and sense of safety she got from Lyons. The amount of heat that Lyons gave off, made Angel feel better at night.

“What are you laughing about?” Rhys snaps at Angel. 

“At my own joke asshole.” Angel tells him sitting up with a fake smile on her face, “No don’t you worry Rhy I’ll be out of your nonexistent hair in a couple of days.” 

“What did you say?” Rhys all but snaps at Angel. 

“I said I would be out of your nonexistent hair in a couple of days.” Angel repeats in an over the top cheerful voice. 

“Rhys! Angel!” Danse yells at the pair, stopping something before it could start. 

“Yes, sir.” Both Angel and Rhy say at once. 

“Were never going to see after you leave.” Rhys mutters walking away as Angel narrowed her eyes, “You won’t last a day without our aid.” 

“Fuck you.” Angel tells him falling backwards onto her sleeping bag. 

End of line 


	5. Chapter 5

Angel let out a hum, as she drew the beehive. It was a group of wooden beehives, and it seemed like someone before the war was keeping bees. What was once someone's backyard, with the wooden beehives, now was turned into something. Thanks to the radiation and nuclear fallout, the bees outgrew there former homes. The backyard was nothing but one big beehive. Angel had seen a few of the bees, they were only twice the size of there ancestors, and thanks to them the area around the hive was green. 

“Let’s see were, what just outside of Boston? About a two day hike from the police station.” Angel tells dogmeat. The pair had been walking around the Boston suburbs, when they found this house. The house was falling around and ruined, but what got Angel was the buzzing. They followed it around back and found the beehive. Not only that, they also found a bee smoker and a few other items used for beekeeping.

“Don’t know how we are going to get this back to Haylen, just yet but I’m sure I’ll figure out something.” Angel tells dogmeat as she closed her sketchpad and stood. “Come on boy were almost in the city.” As she placed her bat on her shoulder, and started to walk away with dogmeat hot on her heels. 

It had been two days since Angel left the police station, her leg was healed and she was done with Rhys. She left before anyone was awake, and was determined to get to Boston. If mama Murphy was right then, there was help at this Diamond city then Angel would find it. As she looked at her pipboy map she still had a hike. 

“I miss busses.” Angel whines to dogmeat who let out a sad bark. “This hike wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t have all this gear.” She mutters adjusting her backpack. Not that Angel was going to complain about the supplies she found, food, water, ammo, and the like. Nor was she going to complain about how heavy righteous authority was, the laser rifle was sitting pretty on the back of her gun belt. She had yet to use it.

Dogmeat let out a bark, as he ran ahead and took out a fearl ghoul was standing there. The fearl groaned, and altered more ghouls as Angel let out a sigh as she swung and killed the ghouls. She didn’t find much in them except some caps which she pocketed and kept walking. 

“You need to stop doing that.” Angel lightly scolds the dog, who let out a whine, “How can I be mad at you?” Angel asks as she flipped on the pipboy radio right as ‘ _Dear hearts and gentle people’_ started to play, she started hum, as they finally made it into the city. 

“Shit.” Angel whispers seeing how ruined, destroyed and falling apart the city was. They kept walking, with Angel trying not to be seen by anything nasty, but shit happens. Dogmeat let out an angry bark as he attacked a raider. “Shit.” Angel hisses again, as she pulled out her pistol from the holster and shot the rider. That altered the other raiders and they opened fire on her. Along with the turrets. 

“What the fuck?” Angel growls looking at the dead raiders, in front ‘ _Backstreet apparel.’_

“I guess they will take any space they can.”Angel whispers as she started to loot the raiders' bodies to find amon and caps on them. “This is normal right?” She asks the dog, who didn’t give her an answer as he walked down the alley and away from her. 

“I’ll just take that a yes.” She whispers taking in a few deep breaths as she followed him. 

Walking through Boston was once dangerous, you never knew if you were going to get hit by a car or miss your train or bus. Now you had to make, sure you didn’t get killed by dogs, fearls, mutants( which Angel learned right quick to run away from at top speed.), raiders and that was not fun. Angel fell to the ground next to the Park street station. 

“Shit.” Angel hisses as she pulled her knees up to her chest, maybe Rhys was right. “Maybe Rhys was right.”She tells dogmeat who gave Angel face a lick, “I can’t do this. I thought I could but I can’t. I’m not my uncle, or Charon.They could make it to Diamond city. I can barely kill a super mutant.” She wasn't a skilled fighter, she didn't have training to shot to kill like her brother and uncle. Angel had no fucking idea how she made it this far. She was scared, and she couldn't stop being scared.

Dogmeat let out a sad whine as he licked Angel’s face, and went off on his own and came back with a bottle of nuka cherry, “Thanks boy.” She praises petting the dog’s head. She popped the cap off, and looked down at her pipboy, she had turned off the radio, but was now thinking of turning it back on, 

“Well that’s new.” Angel says spotting a new station, ‘ _Silver Shroud Radio’_ “I don’t believe it.” She quickly turned on the radio station, 

‘ _Attention fans of the Silver Shroud do you want to make the Commonwealth a better place? Then come talk to Kent Connolly in the memory den in Goodneighbor.’_

The message ended and then the intro for the shroud started to play. The news that Kent was alive struck Angel hard, but in a good way. She loved talking to Kent at the comic shop before the war, and learning that he was alive made this world a little bit better. She switched over to the map to find that this Goodneighbor was now marked on her map.

“Come on boy, enough feeling sorry for ourselves.” She drank down the bottle of nuka cherry in one go and got up. “We can do this.” 

Twenty minutes later, Angel was screaming as she was running from super mutants. She could almost do it, as the mutants gave up as she neared Goodneighbor. 

“The neon a bit much.” Angel tells, dogmeat who agreed with a head nod. “Okay, we can do this.” She tells dogmeat as she took in a deep breath and entered Goodneighbor. 

************************************************************************************************************************************************************

The first thing Angel saw when she entered the settlement were two stores, one called _‘Kill or be killed’_ and the other called _‘Daisy discounts’_ and the old state house. Was she in Scollay Square? This looked the square, but not at the same time. She took a few steps forward and then was stopped by an alpha. 

“Hold up there. First time in Goodneighbor? Can't go walking around without insurance. Especially such a young fine omega. Can’t have you getting hurt, now can we?” The alpha asks with a dangerous, lecherous smile on his face. 

“Look asshole,” Angel says taking in deep breath and a step towards him, “Fuck off.” 

The alpha let out a few tsks as he approached, “Now that’s not nice. What is a fine young omega like you doing wandering alone?” Angel let out a snort and took a step backwards as dogmeat took a stance to be in front of Angel. The alpha took a huge step forward, but was stopped. 

“Now, now Finn is that any way to treat someone new?” Someone new asks. That someone was a ghoul of the non feral kind. To be honest it was the first time Angel had seen a non feral ghoul. And this ghoul was wearing colonial clothes and had a flag around his waist. Huh, now Angel had seen it all. 

“Your going soft Hancock.” Finn snaps turning to look at the ghoul who Angel now knew was named Hancock. 

Hancock strolled over while shaking his head, “What? No love for your mayor Finn?” Finn didn’t answer as Hanock placed a hand on the man’s shoulder and stabbed him to death. 

“You alright sister?” Hancock asks wiping the blood off his knife. 

“I umm, what the hell?” Angel asks as her back hit the gate as she slid down so she was sitting on the ground. Hancock could see something was wrong she was pale, and shaking a little. Mayne killing Finn in front of her was a bad idea. But hindsight is a bitch.

Hancock shared a look of concern with a woman who was leaning against the wall, “Is it okay if I approach you?” He asks gently holding up his hands.

“Yea.” She tells him, as Hanock approached and kneeled down next to her, 

“Are you okay?” 

“I think so,” She tells him as she looked at the dead body, “Did you need to kill him?” 

“Sadly, I’m John Hancock mayor of Goodneighbor. What’s your name, sister?” 

“Angel, Angel gray.” She tells him taking in a few deep breaths. “It’s safe here right?” 

“Right. Goodneighbor's of the people, for the people, you feel me? Everyone's welcome.” Hancock tells her 

“I feel you.” Angel tells him with a small laugh and chuckle. “I think, I think, I’m good now.” 

“You sure? You look a little pale.” 

“Yea, just had to run from super mutants is all. And then Finn, that was unsettling.” Angel tells him, with a nervous smile. 

“Understandable. If you need rest you can get a room at the hotel rexford, if you need food Whitechapel charlie down at the third rail, need to trade see Daisy, and Kelo has guns and ammo if you need that.” Hancock tells her. 

“Thanks. I think, for now I’m going to get some food, and then go look for someone.” Angel tells him standing up. 

“Right on, if you need anything come find me.” Hancock tells her.

“Thanks.” 

“Anytime sister.” 

End of line 


	6. Chapter 6

Angel found Good Neighbor to be something. She found it to be gross, dirty, and smelled of piss. There was trash everywhere and the people who lived here reminded her drug users and burn outs. But, Hancock had killed Finn keeping her safe, meaning he was top alpha. And Angel was not in any position to complain. At least she found the memory den with ease. Angel had to hold her tongue as she entered the memory den. It was dirty and gross like outside and smelled awful. The place had these six pods, with people in them.

“I think you're in the wrong place sweetheart.” A voice says stopping Angel in her tracks. The voice belonged to a woman, a blonde haired woman, who was wearing a revealing red dress. In the back of the room, was a blonde haired woman lounging on a couch.

“Sorry, I was looking for someone. What is this place? And who are you?” Angel asks rubbing her arm. 

“I’m Irma and this is the memory den. We offer a very unique service. Now who are you?” Irma asks Angel.

“Angel, and I’m guessing you do something with memories here. And I’m also guessing those pods have to do with it as well.” Angel tells her with a small smile. 

Irma smiled back, “You would be right, but this service isn’t for everyone. So you might as well run along now.” 

“At least let me try it out. Can’t hurt right?” Angel asks her. 

“I suppose not,” Irma agrees with a sigh, “Now was there a memory of a person you wanted to revisit?” 

Angel didn’t have to think before she spoke, “My uncle. He was killed and I would like to see him again.” She whispers rubbing her arm. 

“Oh sugar I’m sorry. Step into the pod, and we’ll find the most recent memory of him.” Irma tells her. Angel gave a quick head nod as she removed her jacket, hamlet, and bag and set them next to the pod. 

Angel stepped into the pod, and felt trapped once the front part of it closed, the screen in front said ‘ _please stand by’_ She swallowed hard as she counted to ten, trying to settle her rapid heartbeat, and quicken pulse.

“Amari lift the curtain, it’s showtime.” Angel heard Irma say. As something, landed on her head, and then the screen changed, and then it went white.

************************************************************************************************************************************************************

_Angel found herself back in vault 111. But this time she was outside of the pod, she was watching as it happened._

_‘Manual override initiated. Cryogenic stasis suspended.’ The cold unfeeling voice says from above Angel. She couldn’t see them, but knew what was coming. The bald headed man in the armor with the scar, and the woman in the hazmat suit._

_“This is the one. Here.” The woman tells the man as she was pointing at the pod. The pod was her uncle and Shaun, he was holding the five year old boy in his arms. Shaun the kid, the poor kid. The kid that Angel hated, he was turning too much into there father. And he hadn't presented yet. Shaun had short red hair like there father, but had there mother’s and Angel’s blue eyes._

_‘NO!’ Angel yells trying to shove the man and the woman away but she went through them and landed on the ground._

_She watched in horror as the man went to stand in front of the pod with his gun drawn and pointed at Ken, and with two words that changed everything, “Open it.” He orders as the woman did._

_Ken doubled over caughing clutching Shaun to his chest as the boy started to cry, the Angel in the pod at started to bang her fists against the glass, trying in vain to get free, “Is it over? Are we okay?” Ken asks between coughing, and trying to calm Shaun down._

_The woman reached for Shaun, and tried to take him from Ken, “Almost. Everything is going to be fine.” The man tells Ken, he had put his gun to his side._

_“Come here.. Come here, baby.” The woman cooes reaching for Shaun, but Ken held on. Angel could feel her heart racing, as it started to pound against her chest._

_“No, wait. No, I’ve got him!” Ken yells holding on tightly to Shaun as he and the woman wrestled for control of the boy._

_And then she saw it, the man raised his gun and pointed it at Ken’s head, the Angel in the pod started to bang louder and harder on the glass, as the real one was trying not to cry, “Let the boy go. I’m only gonna tell you once!” The man orders._

_“I'm not giving you Shaun!” Ken yells as he tried to keep his hold on Shaun, and then the man shot her uncle. The Angel in the pod started to cry as she tried to get out of the pod, but it was no use. The woman held Shaun against her and left._

_“Goddammit! Get the kid out of here, and let’s go,” As the man walked up to Angel pod, “At least we still have the backup.” As the pod was refrozen._

_‘Take it easy, I’m going to bring you out this. In three, two, one.’ Angel’s world went white once more._

************************************************************************************************************************************************************

The pod opened up and Angel launched forward. She wanted to throw up, and she did. Thankfully Irma had rushed to her side with a bucket. But, that wasn’t the worst part, the worst part was the smell. The smell of an omega in distress, the stech made Irma rell back in fright. The smell that would send other omegas into distress and panicked and stressed out alphas.

“Irma what the h-h-hell? ANGEL!” Kent asks as he opened the door to his room, the ghoul rushed out of his room and to Angel’s side. The ghoul sat down next to the young girl and started to rub her back as she threw up.

“Irma what the hell?” Hancock yells as he burst into the memory den. Hot on his heels was another man, he looked panicked and stressed. The smell of an omega in distress was not sitting well with him or the mayor. 

“What the hell is going on?” He asks trying to see what was going on, upon seeing Angel hunched over with Kent trying to sooth her, he didn’t look happy, “Shit.” 

“If I knew Maccready I would tell you.” Irma snaps at Maccready who took a step backwards, “Do you know her Kent.” Kent nodded his head yes, before he spoke. 

“Yea, I knew her before the war.” Kent explains as Angel had stopped throwing up, and the smell of distress had finally started to go away. Hancock looked at Irma and Kent before he walked over and knelt in front of Angel. 

In a soft and gentle voice, Hancock asks Angel, “Hey little sister, bad trip?” Angel could only shake her head yes, 

“Irma do you have any water?” Hancock asks the woman. Hancock was keeping his voice soft and gentle, and keeping his distance in case she lashed out. Omegas tended to that if they felt trapped after something like this happened to them.

“T-t-there should be some in my room.” Kent tells Hancock, the mayor gestured for Maccready to grab the water, and he did. Angel downed the water in one go, and stood up. She was mad. 

“HOW DARE YOU MAKE ME RELIVE THAT MEMORY!” Angel yells at Irma, and the poor woman took a step backwards. “I didn’t, I didn’t want to see that again.” 

“Sweetheart I’m sorry. The brain scanner picks up on the most recent memory of that person or place. I didn’t know it would pick that one.” Irma explains. 

“Your system is fucked up and needs work.” Angel says snapping at Irma. 

“Angel, what is going on? How in the hell are you alive and why do you look like you did before the bombs dropped?” Kent asks, as she let out a sigh. Angel sat down on the couch that was tucked away, and explained everything. 

“Ken is dead? And you don’t who killed him. That’s bad.” Kent mutters, as Angel was hanging her head in shame, and trying to wipe away the phantom tears that were threatening to spill. 

“I know and there was nothing I could do to stop him. Shaun is missing and my uncle is gone. I’m alone.” Angel whispers with a sniffle. 

“Hey, hey it’s okay.” Kent tells her, as he sat next to her and gave her a side hug. 

“What about Valentine?” Maccready finally asks, he had been quiet this whole time. Taking in everything the young omega said. During her explanation Hancock shared a look with Maccready, and the mercenary knew something was going to happen, and he was about to be part of it. 

“Valentine?” Angel repeats confused, as she looked at Maccready. He was an alpha that much she gathered, he smelled of the gun oil and dirt, but there was something about him. Something she couldn’t place. 

“Maccready was right. Nick’s a detective and he has an office in Diamond city.” Irma tells her. 

“Or he did, the man’s been missing for two week.” Hancock tells her, with a sad sigh as he looked upset, “But, I think I know where he is. He was looking for a girl who was kidnapped by Skinny Malone or he thought so. Ellie told me he was heading to park street station.” 

“You think he can help?” Angel asks the mayor, with a hopeful smile. 

“If anyone can help it’s him.” Hancock tells her returning the smile, “Maccready.” 

“Yes, Hancock?” 

“You still looking for work?” 

“Yea, why?” 

Hancock pulled out a bag from his coat pocket and tossed it to Maccready, “Three hundred and fifty caps cover it?” 

“Huh yea, that will do it.” Maccready says while pocketing the caps. 

“Good, you're hired. You and me, are going to help Angel find Nick.” 

Angel’s eyes went wide, “You don’t have to do that.” 

“Kid, you're going to need our help. Getting Nick back is not going to be easey.” Hancock tells her.

End of line 


	7. Chapter 7

Angel couldn’t sleep that night and she had no clue why. She tossed and turned in the sleeping bag that was on top of the old and moldy mattress. She thought and hoped that being somewhere safe would help her sleep better. She spent the better of two days only sleeping for a few hours while dogmeat stayed watch. She missed the safety the police station brought. But in the end she fell asleep, but only got four hours of sleep. 

“There you are, I was starting to get worried.” Maccready greets trying to smile as Angel came to the lobby of the hotel. 

“Sorry, did I keep waiting?” Angel asks rubbing her eyes. “I don’t like to keep people waiting.” 

“Naw your fine, I just don’t want to keep Hancock waiting. He invited us over to the state house for breakfast.” Maccready tells her. 

“Oh okay.” Angel tells him trying to smile. 

“You alright kid?” Maccready asks, raising an eyebrow. 

“Yea, fine why?” 

“Just, never mind.” Maccready tells her as they left. Breakfast was the blandest, tasteless oatmeal Angel had ever had in her life. But it was food. 

“Hey Maccready you're not from around here are you?” Angel asks picking at the food in her bowl. 

“Wait, how could you tell?” Maccready asks in shock.

“Your accent, it doesn’t sound like mine. So where are you from?” Angel asks again, as she pulled her bag up from the floor and started to look for something. 

“Little lamplight, it's a settlement in the Capital wasteland.” Maccready tells her.

“Wait your from DC? Holy shit, you don’t by chance know a group called the brotherhood of steel?” Angel asks her voice muffled as her head was in her bag.

“Who doesn’t they pretty much rule the wasteland I got out there a few years ago. Why?” 

“I met some members of the brotherhood of steel that said they were from DC. But, they were quick not to tell me jack shit about the group. Maybe you can fill in the blanks for me, and there you.” Angel says letting out a whoop of joy as she pulled out a jar of honey. 

“I can try.” Maccready tells her. “What do you want to know?” 

“Whose there leader, and where are stationed?” Angel asked as she put some of the honey into her oatmeal. 

Maccready let out a sigh with an eye roll, “Glad you asked the easy questions. The brotherhood home base is this place called the Citadel. Supposedly it used to be some big and important building before the war. Don’t know much about it never cared to. And as for there leader, an alpha known as Arthur maxson, the last in the long line descendants from some guy who founded there group, a guy named Roger Maxson.” 

“What is this elder Maxson like?” Angel asks starting to enjoy her food better. 

“Full questions aren’t you?” Maccready asks with a smile, as Hancock rolled his eyes. 

“Curiosity isn’t a sin. But it can get you killed.” Angel tells him, “I just want to know what type of man sends his people out here with little to no information is all.” 

“That’s fair.” Maccready says, “I’ll tell you what I know. Mind you most are these rumors. So back when Maxson was twelve, he managed to kill two raiders on a training patrol, saving the squad that was supposed to escort him. A year later, he supposedly managed to single-handedly kill a deathclaw, taking grave wounds in the process and a disfiguring scar on his face.” Maccready stopped when he saw the ‘ _What the hell_ ’ look on Angel’s face, 

“Yea there are, couple more rumors, so Maxson is fifteen now right, and guess what he does? He kills this super mutant called Shepherd, who tried to reorganize the remnants of the Capital Wasteland super mutant infestation. From what I heard that deed is what gave him the title of elder, but he did one more thing. At sixteen Maxson brokered a peace with the Outcasts, they were a group from what I heard that broke away from the brotherhood. Maxson brought them back into the fold.” 

“What the flying fuck? This guy seems like a total asshole.” Angel states, her food long forgotten. 

Maccready could only offer Angel a shrug, “That’s the brotherhood for you. Maxson’s the last in the maxson line, there’s a lot of pressure on him to have an heir. I only know that from a friend who is a trader and they go between here and the capitol.” 

“Well, fuck a duck I’m never meeting him alone.” Angel states with shiver.

“And you won’t, this asshole is the capital wasteland and were here.” Hancock tells her. 

“Your right.” Angel mumbles as she could at stare at her oatmeal. Could she trust Danse, and Lyons know what she did? Little did Angel know she had already met elder Maxson.

***********************************************************************************************************************************************************

Maccready, Angel and Hancock left an hour later. Angel left dogmeat with Kent knowing dogmeat would be better off with the ghoul. They made it to park street station, after Angel had been warned by both Maccready and Hancock to stay clear of the common, there was something that would and could kill them. And Angel was in no mood to deal with that. 

“Shit.” Hancock hisses as he pulled Angel behind the wall, that was at the bottom of the stairs. He quickly put a hand over the young vault dweller, and pressed a finger to his lips to Maccready. Maccready nodded his head, as he looked to see, 

“Shit, what are triggermen doing here?” Maccready whispers to Hancock. 

“Most be Malone men. This can’t be all of them.” Hancock angrly mutters, as Angel rolled her eyes. 

“Think there’s more of them?” Maccready asks watching as the triggermen were standing around. 

“More than likely. We can’t go in guns blazing.” Hancock warns, “They might try and hurt Nick.” 

“Can’t have that.” Maccready states, “Look I can try and pick them off, but if one gets down those stairs there going to warn the others.” 

“Then let’s not give them a chance to.” Angel says, as Hancock was shaking his hand out, with vigor and disgust Angel had licked his hand. Maccready didn’t get a chance to say anything as Angel pulled righteous authority off the back of her belt, and shot the closest triggermen the other seeing there friend get shot and started to shoot back. Maccready took the opening to kill all three, well all four since a fourth one came running out of the bathrooms. 

“See that was easy.” Angel says as she stood in the middle of the dead bodies. 

“You licked me.” Hancock growls as he wiped his hand on his jacket. 

“Yes? And?” Angel asks tilting her head to the side, “Think they got any good loot on them?” 

“Porbaly, we can go through there pockets later, Valentine is somewhere in this damn place.” Maccready tells her, as Angel let out a huff. 

“Fiiine.” Angel says with a huff, “You know there is supposed to be a vault down here.” 

“Vault?” Hancock and Maccready ask her, shocked. 

“Yea, this station was closed sometime before the bombs dropped, the paper said that vault tec bought this place. I think the news was saying that there were still openings. I don’t know, I hated the news.” Angel explains with an eye roll. 

“If there is a vault down here then that is where Malone is keeping Nick.” Hancock concludes sounding relieved and happy. 

“More than likely. We won’t know for sure till we get down there.” Angel tells him.

“She’s right.” Maccready points. 

“Alright get going.” Hancock agrees.

Just as Maccready and Hancock guessed they were met with some pretty heavy fire from Malone men in the old tunnel. It was here that Angel noted that she would need some better armour, and she wondered if combat armour was still a thing. She would look into that at a later date. 

But for now killing triggermen was on the to do list. Finally they came to a vault door. Using her pipboy Angel opened the vault door. The triggermen were less than thrilled to see them. They killed all but one of them. Hancock had a little chat with triggermen inside the vault while Maccready helped Angel loot the dead triggermen. Once Hancock was done, he collected the pair. Seems that Nick was in the overseer office. More triggermen that now laid dead, as they made it to the overseers office. Hancock let out a growl as he went up the stairs to the office and killed the triggermen.

“Hancock that you?” Nick calls out from the office, Angel stopped dead in her tracks, that voice. “Was wondering when you were going to come and get me. My knight in shining armour.” 

“Couldn’t just go running into danger head first now could I?” Hancock asks with a smile and a wink. “You just need to hold on a little longer, while I try to find a way to free yea.” 

“That meathead should have the password on him, use it and get me out of here.” Nick orders. Angel could stand there, this Nick it couldn’t be him, could it.

“Found it.” Hancock yells pulling the password off the dead body. Nick let out chuckle as the door opened. 

“Hello hand-” The sound of someone getting slapped echoed throughout the office, “Huh guess I earned that.” As Nick rubbed the side of his face.

“Earned that?” Hancock asks with growl, “Do you have any idea how worried I’ve been? Two weeks with no word, no idea where the hell you’ve been? Ellie that sweetheart girl came running to my neck of the woods telling me what happened. Do you have any idea how badly I wanted to come find you?” 

“I can only imagine how stressed you've been. Now that you say it was a dumb idea to come crawling around here.” Nick admits rubbing the back of his neck, “Would it mean anything if I said I was sorry?” 

“You're an idiot you know that right?” Hancock asks his voice soft and caring. 

“Yea, yea, but I’m your idiot.” Nick tells him with a smirk, as he pulled Hancock into a tight hug. 

“Damn straight you are.” Hancock tells him with a grin. 

“Nick Valentine is that you?” Angel whispers coming into the office and stopping dead in her tracks. 

“Angel grey, that you?” Nick staring at the young vault dweller. 

End of line 


	8. Chapter 8

The Nick in front of her wasn't human nor was he a ghoul he was a synth. But, he wasn't like the ones that she fought at arc jet. Hancock trusted him. This Nick was missing the skin on the left side of his face and majority of the skin on his neck, and missing the skin on his left hand. But this Nick was dressed like how she remembered the real Nick. Faded trench coat, and fedora, the coat was in tatters and had to be fixed up in spots, and the shirt looked to have seen better days.

“Angel, how is this possible?” Nick asks, and Angel couldn't give a verbal answer. She ran and hugged the old and worn synth. Nick, didn’t even stumble backwards as Angel hugged him tightly, “It’s good to see you too sweetheart. How did you find me?” 

“Ellie,” Hancock tells Nick with a soft huff, “She called me up on the radio asking, no asking isn’t the right word she was pleading with me if you were in Good Neighbor. I told her no and she told me where you were missing and that you were down here. Do you know what I had to do not to come running here?” 

“All the willpower in the Commonwealth?” Nick jokes as Hancock scowled, “I owe that girl a rise.” 

“Like hell you do. That poor girl, has been worried sick about you. You're just lucky Nick.” John tells him with a chuckle. 

“As long as my luck never runs out and I have you, I’ll be fine.” Nick tells him with a wink, “Now you.” As Angel pulled out of the hug, “Why the hell do you look the same as you did two hundred ago?” 

“Well that is a long story, and one I don’t think we have time for.” Angel tells him with a nervous chuckle.

“And one I would love to hear, but you're right we don’t have time for this.” Nick tells her, with a sigh, “That girl I was tracking, she wasn’t kidnapped but ran away. She’s Skinny Malone's newest fling.” 

“Yikes.” Angel says with a hiss. 

“Yikes indeed.” Nick tells them heading for the exit, “Well if isn’t Maccready.” 

“Valentine.” Maccready greets. 

“I'm shocked to see you here. You pay him John?” Nick asks the ghoul.

“Needed an extra gun. I had a feeling this place was going to crawling with Malone men. And I wasn't sure how well the little sister could handle herself.” Hancock explains, as Angel was exploring the office Nick was trapped in. 

“Turns out she can handle herself pretty well.” Maccready praised Angel smirked, as she pocketed some caps. 

“Huh guess Maccready will really do anything for some caps.” Nick mutters as he starts to walk off.

“He's been a big help, and I do appreciate it.” Angel calls out, as she saw the sour look that was on Maccready's face.

“Thanks kid.” 

Angel gave him a smile as she followed after Nick. Angel grew to hate the triggermen, and the vault. The vault was unfinished, meaning there was so much crap everywhere. And that crap made it easy for the triggermen to hide behind and attack them.

“More damn stairs! Who built this damn vault, a fitness instructor?” Nick groans, as he ran, up the stairs. 

“Come on Nick, it ain't that bad.” Angel jokes as she bashed the head in of a triggerman that was waiting for them at the top of the stairs.

“Humph maybe for you.” Nick jokes with a smile.

“Hey it's good for your cardio.” Angel tells him and they soon came to the entrance, “Did we do a full circle?” 

“Appears so. Skinny Malone is on the other side of this door, I can hear his big fat footsteps. Let me do the talking.” Nick orders. 

“Umm Nick that might be a wicked bad idea.” Angel tells him, “He kept you locked up for two weeks.” 

“Kid’s got a point someone else should talk to him, preferable at the business end of a gun barrel.” Maccready dryly comments. 

“Now, let’s not resort to violence there’s still a chance we can save this girl.” Nick tells Maccready, eyeing him down.

“Fine, but I’ll be ready.” Maccready tells him.

“You do that then. John, what do you say?” Nick asks. 

“We either get the girl to shot Malone or have Malone shot the girl. And I know you don’t like that option but keep your options open.” Hancock quickly tells him. 

“If she kills him, that’s no blood on our hands right?” Angel asks Nick, as she starts to rock backwards. 

Nick let out a sigh or as close to sigh as he could get, “Look maybe I can remind him of our past, and get this mess sorted out peacefully.” 

Maccready and Hancock let out a grunt of disapproval, “Fine, fine. Wait and see no one shots first.” 

In the end it didn’t matter, Angel was able to convince Darla to shot Malone. Just something about how Angel said it was enough to start a fire fight. Malone and his men were dead and Darla was heading home.   
************************************************************************************************************************************************************  
It was night by the time the group exited the old tunnels. 

“The Commonwealth sky, how can something so ominous be so comforting?” Nick asks as he looks at all the stars in the sky. 

“As long as you don’t pull a stunt like that again, you can go stargazing any time you want.” Hancock playfully tells him. 

“As long as you're by my side I will.” Nick tells him, as Angel and Maccready just shared a look. Maccready caughted bringing the ghoul and synth attention back to the current situation. 

“Right, right sorry. Angel you got questions, and I hopefully have answers. I got an office in Diamond city, why don’t we head there now?” Nick asks, as Angel didn’t brother hide her yawn. 

“ Maccready, do me a favor?” Ange asks rubbing her eyes, damn she was tired. 

“I can try.” Maccready tells her. 

“Head to a place called Sanctuary Hills, you’ll find a guy there named Preston Garvey, let him know I sent you.” Angel explains. “Let him know you're there to offer your services.” 

“I think I can do that, and stay safe. The commonwealth is a dangerous place after all.” Maccready tells her. 

Angel looked over at Hancock and Nick, “I think I’ll be fine.” 

With one last nod Maccready left, and soon Angel, Nick and Hancock were heading out to Diamond city. 

End of line


	9. Chapter 9

Angel woke with a small yelp, and a cry for help that never came. She was safe, she was okay. She was in Nick’s office, she was in Diamond city and she was not in trouble or in danger. She, Nick and Hancock had gotten to the city late that night. 

And after talking about the killer and figuring out that the killer was a man named Kellogg, they found his house, found his cigars and had to ask for dogmeat to come back from Good Neighbour. But they would do that in the morning, it was not the best idea for travel at night. 

Angel let out a huff, as she opened her bag Vault 114 might have been a pain in the ass but there were a few goodies that she grabbed. She found some nice towels and shampoo and conditioner oh there was a God. 

“Let’s see I can leave this here.” Angel mutters as she made neat pile of her armor, gun belt, jacket, gloves and hamlet. She felt bad for taking Ellie bed last night, but Ellie said it was okay, she would get a room at the Dugout inn and if Angel needed a hot meal and shower the inn was the best place for that. “Aww there you are.” Angel whispers, pulling a fresh pair of jeans, a new shirt and vault suit, and some fresh socks. With everything in hand she made for to the inn. 

Just like everything else in the city the Dugout inn was a dugout used by old baseball teams. Back before the war Angel would have killed to come down to the field to meet the teams now, now she was just pissed. Pissed but she understood why the stadium became shantytown. Angel took the steps down two at a time, till she went inside. She didn’t go to the bar, she went to the side just as Ellie had told her. 

“Hello, are you Yefim?” Angel asks the man sitting down and reading a paper. 

The man looked up and Angel could smell that he was an alpha, just like the man behind the bar, “Yes, how may I help you?” 

“Oh, I was wondering if I could take a quick shower?” Angel asks, adjusting her bundle. 

“I don’t see why not, that will be five caps. We normally charge fifteen for the room.” Yefim tells her. 

“Oh wow thank you.” Angel tells him, handing him the five caps. 

“Your welcome room four is free for you to use.” Angel said a quick thank you as she ran down to room four. 

The water was lukewarm at best and rad free but who was Angel to bitch? A shower was a shower. Angel's first layer was the vault suit, a fresh one from her home vault, with that on, next came her jeans or her brother's jeans. She was still not sure how her and Charan shared the same pant size but she wouldn't complain about a pair of comfy pants, next came the shirt. Her shirt was a plain cotton soft red. Pastel blue hair was done up in a bun with a bandana to hide it. Angel scowled as she put on her boots, they were starting to get a hole in the sole, she would need to get a new pair or see if Cogsworth had a pair for her.

“Well I feel better and I look better.” Angel tells her reflection with a smile. Angel gathered up her things and left the room and then stopped. 

“Come on Vadim I can’t still be banned.” A man whines, the man was leaning against the bar top with a sleazy smile on his face. 

Vadim the alpha behind the bar gave him a bored look, “I can and I am. I do not want another fight, Nate.” 

Nate rolled his eyes, “It was a one time thing, like come on.” 

“No not a one time thing, it has happened many times.” Vadim tells him, “If it happens one more time you are banned for life.” 

By this point Angel was close to the bar, and she got a better look at Nate. He was tall and board with short and trimmed dark brown hair, and light blue eyes. He was wearing an all leather outfit with a near complete set of combat armor and the only piece he was missing was the hamlet. And strapped to his back was a rifle. He smelled like chemicals and dirt, and he was an alpha. 

Nate rolled his eyes, “Look Vadim what if I buy her breakfast? Would that make us even?” And of course Nate was referring to Angel. 

“Will that be okay with you?” Vadim asks, his tone made it sure that Angel had a choice. 

“Yea that’s fine.” Angel tells him, Vadim nodded and grabbed some menus from behind the bar. Angel looked them over, and then picked,

“I’ll have steak and eggs with the eggs being sunny side up and the sweet potato hash with a glass of milk.” Angel orders, glancing over at Nate as he was smiling at her.

“I’ll have the same as her but fired eggs and no hash, and some milk as well.” Nate orders with a smile.

“Very well that will be sixty caps, you can go have a seat, and Scarlet will bring your order right out.” Vadim tells her, as Angel didn’t say a word as she found a seat. She was kicking herself for not bringing her art stuff. And this place didn’t strike Angel as having anything good to read. 

“Mind if I join you?” Nate asks sitting down across from Angel with there drinks, Angel could only quirk an eyebrow at him. “So I don’t think we were introduced, I'm Nate.” 

“Angel.” Angel tells him as she starts sipping her drink. Well this felt badly familiar. All that was needed was for her father to be watching and glaring at her, and talking to someone about her potential marriage. A shiver went up her spine.

“So you're new around here? I’m asking since I’ve never seen you before today.” 

“In a way.” Angel tells him, clearing her throat, “Look thank you for breakfast.” 

“Yea no problem, it was the only way to get back in Vadim good graces.” 

“Well good for you.” As Nate was about to say something there food thankfully arrived and Angel ate and left.  
************************************************************************************************************************************************************  
Angel didn’t tell Nick and Hancock about her run in with Nate. She didn’t see the point of telling them. And not like it mattered. What did matter was find Kellogg. And thankfully dogmeat was a big help to track the man across half of the Commonwealth through mole rats, bears, ghouls and robots. And one deathclaw. 

“Hold up.” Angel says stopping once they made it through the chain link fence. The area was vaguely familiar, but she couldn't remember why. Nick let out hum, as he and Hancock were catching there breath.

“Something wrong?” Nick asks as Hancock was catching his breath. 

“Where the hell is that dog leading us?” Hancock growls as he looks at the scenery behind them, “Shit, were sure as hell out of the way aren’t we?” 

“That’s the point isn’t it? Kellogg didn’t want to be found.” Nick tells him with a smile, “John thank you.” 

“For what?” Hancock asks with a sly smirk, he knew what Nick was thanking him for. 

Nick let out a sigh but was smiling, “You didn’t have to come with us or have dogmeat sent over. You could have left.” 

“Yea, I know. But, I wanted to see this till the end, you know? That kid.” 

“She hasn’t had it easy. I appreciate it.” 

“You just owe me.” Hancock tells him with a wink. Nick shook his head, and then they heard screaming. Angel was standing in front of an old fort, and looking madder than hell. 

“YOU FUCKING BASTARD! OFF ALL THE PLACES IN THE COMMONWEALTH, YOU HAD TO PICK THIS PLACE! ARE JUST THAT MUCH OF A FUCKING DICK?” She yells kicking the boarded up door, poor dogmeat he looked scared and confused.

“Oh boy.” Nick softly mutters, rubbing the back of his head.

“Nick?” Hancock asks, giving the synth a confused look. 

“John welcome to Fort Hagen the place where Ken Gray worked pre-war.” Nick explains keeping his voice low as he talked to Hancock.

“Shit.” Hancock says with a hiss, “Should we?” 

“Give her a moment.” Nick tells him, as Angel finally ran out of steam and collapsed onto the stairs, head in hands as she dried heaved.

“Why here?” Angel whispers as she let out a sniffle, she wasn’t going to cry. 

“I don’t know sweetheart.” Nick softly tells her, “We don’t have to do this right now. We can come back if you want.” Hancock gave Nick a confused/worried look, but he understood why. Angel looked stressed and ready to break down. She couldn’t handle this right now. 

“Nick’s right. Going after Kellogg right now wouldn’t be for the best.” Hancock tells her. Getting a nod of approval from the old synth.

“John’s right doing this will do more harm than good.” Nick agrees. 

“I-yea, you're both right. I think I want to head over to cambridge police station.” She tells the pair, “I haven't been back in a few days, and I want to make sure my friends there are okay.” 

“That’s a great idea. We can check on them and then when you're feeling better we can come back here.” Nick tells her with a smile. 

Angel gave him half a smile, “Thanks Nick, and Hancock. I’m sorry.” 

“Don’t be, we get it kid.” Hancock tells her with a soft smile. 

End of line


	10. Chapter 10

The walk from hagen to cambridge seemed like torture. Angel was doing her best not to show how bad this whole shit storm was affecting her. Fort hagen meant so much to her, and hurt thinking that her uncle's killer was hiding there. Nick and Hancock were also trying not to push the matter. Nick more than Hancock, he knew why Hagen had gotten to her. How many times had Angel gone to the fort to see Ken? How many times had she gone to the red rocket to get a bottle of nuka cola? To many for the old synth to count.

“Nick.” Hancock quietly hisses, as the trio walked down the empty streets of the old world. 

“Yes, yes I know.” Nick hisses back, watching Angel rub her arm, “I get it. Don't push the matter.” 

“Don't push it? We know where the bastard is, we should be there killing him. Not taking a detour.” Hancock hisses out with a slight growl.

“John.” Nick says, grabbing a hold of the ghoul wrist, “There's more at play here than you know. That place shares a history with Angel.” 

“What type of history?” 

“Ken, he used to work there. Kellogg being there probably isn't helping her cope.” 

“Well shit.” Hancock mutters while shaking his head, “Nicky what are we going to do?” 

Nick could only shake his head, “I don't know John. But right now she doesn't need us to push her, what she needs is space.” Hancock was ready to retort when someone stopped them.

“Halt who…. Angel?” The person asks them in there tracks. 

“DANSE!” Angel happily yells running over to the paladin. Angel never felt more relief in her life then upon seeing power armour.

“Glad to see that you made it back soldier.” Danse greets. “And I see you brought ‘friends’ with you.” 

“Glad to be back sir.” Angel didn't realize how close they were to the police station, the thought of them being close lifted a weight from her shoulders. “Yup, Nick and Hancock.” 

“Angel are you alright?” Danse asks seeing how down and out Angel looked. 

“I’m fine.” Angel tells him, trying to smile, as she walks past him. “Just can’t wait to see everyone. 

Angel felt better being back at the police station, she felt safe and sound. Even those she and Rhys still wanted to kill each other. Haylen was more than happy to see her doing good, not better or well just good. And she was shocked to see that Angel found a beehive, and taking Angel's warning to heart. Lyons was beyond pleased to see her. They made small talk before Rhys cut in asking, no demanding what she was doing back here.

“I needed some time to collect my thoughts before I killed Kellogg.” Angel simply tells him as she was seated on the floor, “And I was wondering if you have any work for me to do.” 

Rhys gave her a mischievous smile, “I do have one job for you. But I doubt you can handle it.” 

“Bring it cupcake.” Angel shot back with an equally mischievous smile, as Nick and Hancock shared a worried look. Rhy job was simple: go to the super duper mart in Lexington and clear out the nest of feral ghouls. Not so simple was not bringing paladin, but in the end Lyons was going to assist. Neither Danse nor Lyons didn’t want Angel to go with the pair. It didn’t go unnoticed by Angel how they were making sine remarks and glances. 

************************************************************************************************************************************************************

“What do you mean you haven’t used righteous authority?” Lyons squawks out as Angel gives him a sheepish look as she shrank back. 

“To be fair, I haven’t had to. Since I have a bat and two other guns.” Angel tells him holding hand ups to quickly defend herself. Said bat was in her backpack gleaming in the sunlight. 

Lyons let out a sigh or what sounded like a sigh from behind the hamlet. “You're going to learn how to use it now.” 

As early as they could the next morning the group left, on there three hour walk to Lexington. Angel suspected that this was a ploy by Lyons to get her alone to talk and to see if she was courtable. Those Angel knew she wasn’t courtable, that fact was drilled into her head. They had made it to the outskirts of Lexignton, Lyons and Angel had made small talk and somehow he had asked about the rifle. 

“I take it you know about kickback?” Lyons asks as he searches for some targets. 

“It's the backward movement of a gun when it is discharged it can also be called recoil.” Angel tells him with an eye roll and scoff, “My uncles taught me about kickback.” 

“Good that saves us some time, perfect see those bloatflies?” He asks, pointing to a pair of giant flies. 

“Yes, why?” Angel asks grimacing as she gave him a sideways glance. 

“Shot them with righteous authority.” He orders. Angel felt a shiver go down her spine as she pulled righteous authority off the back of her belt, she took in a deep breath as she peered down the rifle sight. 

“Is this necessary?” Nick asks annoyed at Lyons' actions as he was tapping his foot. 

“Very much so.” Lyons tells the old synth trying not to snap, thanking whichever god that the flies hadn’t spotted the group, “Take your time.” 

“Right.” Angel tells him, pulling the trigger and falling backwards onto the ground. The shot went off, killing one of the flies as the other started to buzz over, but was quickly killed by Hancock. 

“Ang you okay?” Nick asks, kneeling next to the young omega. 

“The fuck? That kickback was insane.” Angel growls and winces, “You could have warned me that it was going to be, kickback from hell!” 

“I could have but you needed to learn.” Lyons nonchalantly tells her while walking away.

“That guy is a fucking prick.” Hancock states as Angel got off the ground.

“Agreed.” Angel tells him with a nod, as they caught up to Lyons. Angel took in a deep breath as she matched Lyons' pace and walked next to him. 

“I’m glad to see that you're okay.” Lyons tells her, “I was worried after you left.” 

“I’m glad that you're glad, that I’m okay. I won’t lie, it was hard. I didn’t think it was going to be that _bad_. But I managed somehow.” Angel tells him with a slight skip in her step. 

“The commonwealth is a dangerous place.” 

“That it is.” Angel agrees as she rubbed her eyes, “But, it's easier when you have friends like you, Nick and Hancock.” 

“You haven’t been sleeping.” Lyons points out as he killed a raider. 

“You’ve noticed.” Angel mutters as shot the second raider. “It's not like I haven’t been trying.” 

“But, you missed the warmth and safety of the station.” Lyons asks with a smirk from behind the hamlet. 

“If I’m being honest. It was the first time I’ve ever really felt safe. My..” Angel paused and looked at Nick who seemed to understand what Angel was going to say or trying to say. “Someone in my life before the war once told me that an alpha such as yourself would never care about me.” 

Lyons stopped walking as Angel, Nick and Hancock went on to kill a few raiders as they made there way to the super duper mart. Someone had made Angel think that no one could care about her. And that rubbed Lyons the wrong way. 

“So this place went to hell in a handbasket.” Angel boldly states at the dilapidated of her favorite store. And Angel then started to laugh. 

“Am I missing something?" Hancock asks Angel and Nick.

“Naw, just this place was always bad to look at, but now it just looks awful. By the way, thanks.” Angel tells him as she smiles sadly.

“Thanks for what sister?” Hancock asks her.

“Thanks for helping me. I-I-I didn't think I would get this far. Having you and Nick here has made this hell better.” Angel softly mutters.

Hancock smirked and he slung his arm across Angel's shoulders as he pulled her close for a side hug, “No, thanks needed. You looked like you needed help and it's not just for the fact that you're an omega.”

“That makes me feel better.”Angel tells him as she heard heavy footsteps, “Hey Lyons.” 

“I don’t need to warn how dangerous fearls are, do I?” Lyons asked Angel, as the sole crossed her arms over her chest and gave him a glare. 

“Seeing this is my second sweep with you and maybe my tenth time encountering fearls, then no.” Angel tells him, as she was about to kick the door, two things dawned on her. First was an odd chalk design and then a thought. “Hey Nick?” 

“Yes, ang?”

“You can hack terminals right?” 

“Of course why?” 

“Well this place has a protectron so, do you think you could hack it?” Angel asks, giving him a devious smile. Nick shot her an equally devious smile as he and Hancock went followed by Lyons and Angel. Angel stilled as she heard the sound of crushed glass, and realized how creepy the store was. 

“Where are the fearls?” Angel whispers, as Lyon let out a hum as he guided Angel to display. 

“Get up there, shit it about to get real.” Lyons tells her, as he opened fire on a ‘dead’ feral, the ghoul sprang to life and he tactfully positioned himself next to Angel. 

“OPEN FIRE!” He ordered as the fearls started to swarm them, Angel let out a small gasp as she started to shoot.

“Hey Lyons?” Angel asks, dropping the rifle, as she starts to swing at the fearls with her bat. 

“What? Where the hell is that protectron?” Lyons snaps, as a protectron comes out of the side office and started to kill the fearls. 

“Oh never mind.” Angel tells him with a nervous laugh, as the fearls start to thin out thanks to the protectron, Nick, Lyons, Hancock and Angel's efforts. 

“Shit.” Lyons growls as his and Angel geiger counters start to freak out. 

“The fuck?” Angel mutters in shock seeing something coming at them and it was a one glowing and it had a bloated arm and leg. 

“A glowing one! Everyone watch yourself.” Nick yells/warns, as the glowing one let out a roar and all the dead fearls came back to life. 

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Angel yells as she bashes in the head of a feral that got too close. 

“I’ll take out the glowing you, take out the fearls.” Lyons orders firing at the glowing. 

“Easier said than done!” Angel growls as a feral sneaked up behind her, Angel had little time to react as the feral swiped at her. Angel let out a cry, as the fearls claws connected with her arm. Blood, and fabric went flying, as Angel stumbled backwards as she went onto the ground. 

“ANGEl!” Lyons yells, as Angel gave him a thumbs up as she pulled out her 10mm from its holster and killed the ghoul. 

“I’m fine, kill the glowing one.” She grunted as she stood and started to shot the ghouls that were starting to swarm. Lyons nodded as he killed the glowing one. With the glowing one dead the fearls stayed dead.

“Angel you okay?” Nick asks as he gently took hold of Angel’s wounded arm, “Doesn’t look too bad, just needs to be patched up.”

“Awesome.” Angel tells him as Lyons tossed her rifle back at her. “I don’t know how to change the cells.” 

“That was one me, I should have taught you how to change the cells.” Lyon apologizes. 

“No shit.” Angel, Nick and Hancock tell him.

End of line 


	11. Chapter 11

Angel and Lyons chatted the whole way back to the police station. Nick could only smile at how happy and edger Angel looked, it was a nice change to how down she had been out. The small group soon stopped to kill a radstag. Or Lyons and Nick killed the two headed deer while Angel watched as Hancock looked at her arm.

“Looks like you got a nasty set of lacerations there little sister.” Hancock tells her, the claw marks had stopped bleeding, and there was little redness around the wounds and he couldn't see any radiation.

“Guess Haylen is going to have to patch me up.” Angel mutters as she lookee woefully at her jacket, the jacket now had five slashes in it. She was going to have to sew the jacket when they got back. “Sorry you have to waste resources on me… again.” 

“It’s not a waste Angel.” Lyons tells her as he was carrying the deer, “Don’t listen to Rhys.” 

Angel gave Lyons a small smile, “Thanks.” 

“Your welcome, let’s head out before it gets dark.” 

They made it back to the station in record time, and with Hyalen's help Angel’s arm was treated and cleared of any radiation that might have been lurking. Danse and Lyons busied themselves cooking the radstag, while Angel sat and started to sew her jacket sleeve. 

“Nice job with the patch job.” Nick praises as Angel was sewing the fabric to the sleeve. 

“Thanks Nick, but you don’t have to lie. I’m not the best at sewing.” Angel admits having to double back and redo her running stitches. 

“You're pretty useless for an omega.” Rhy sneers, which earned him a glare from everyone in the room. 

“Not all of us had a mother who had the time to sit and teach them how to sew. And my grandmother was a cunt who never had the patience when it came to teaching me.” Angel says with a slight hiss as she pricked herself with the needle. 

“So who taught then?” Hancock asks as he blew a smoke ring at Rhys. The knight let out a cough. 

“My uncle Edward did. He learned it in the army.” Angel tells him with a smile, “He was the only family member that ever seemed to have the patience to teach me anything. And we weren’t related by blood.” 

Nick let out a soft humph, “I would have guessed it was Ken.” 

“Naw uncle Ken never had the patience to do stuff like this and with his leg. He hated sitting too long due to his leg.” 

“Right, right. You miss them don’t you?” 

“Every day.” 

************************************************************************************************************************************************************

The sun was setting over Cambridge, after dinner of some god awful deer. Angel had wondered up to the roof and was seated close to the edge of the roof drawing the sky. She was softly humming ‘ _Blue Moon.’_ as she worked on the drawing, she was mauling over if she should add people or animals to the drawing. Angel was so lost in her drawing that she didn't hear someone approach from behind or that the person called out to or let out a cough, it wasn't till she felt someone place a hand on her shoulder that she let out an eep.

“Jeuse fuckton Christ Lyons.” Angel yells as she patted her chest, “You can’t sneak up on a girl.” 

Lyons cocked an eyebrow, “I did call out to you. You just didn’t nocite.” He tells her with a smirk, “Do you mind if I joined you?” 

“No, of course not.” Angel tells him with a smile, Lyons smiled back as he sat next to Angel. 

“What are you doing up here?” 

“Wanted some air, and wanted to draw. Drawing helps me think.” Angel tells him as she draws some people into the drawing. 

“You're quite gifted.” 

“You don’t mean that.” Angel tells him looking down and trying to hide her blush. 

Lyon titled his head to the side, “You are gifted. I haven’t seen anyone as skilled as you.” 

“I’m not that good. No, no, no there were better artists then me. Like ummm Jack Green.” She tells him snapping her fingers, “He was a comic book artist before the war. He worked for hubris comics and created the art for both astoundingly awesome tales and the unstoppables. And he worked on the poster art for the silver shroud. Now that man had skill.” Angel tells him. 

“You don’t need to put yourself down. There aren’t that many like you left out in the wasteland.” Lyons tells her. “A skill like yours shouldn’t be wasted.” 

Angel let out a short laugh, “Wow my father once told me that art was a wasted skill set and I should be more focused on finding an alpha. And not going to school.” 

“Was he the one that told you that an alpha like me wouldn’t find you attractive?” 

“Nail on the head there.” Angel mutters with an eye roll, “That man hated me the moment I was born. He wanted all sons, 

_‘Sons carry on the family legacy. Daughters are a waste, now I have to spend my time trying to find you a husband. Why couldn’t I be blessed with all sons and not you.’_ He thought very lowly of me, of omegas as a whole. He was an old school alpha, he thought that the only job for an omega was to sever an alpha. We weren't anything to him.” 

“He sounds vile.” Lyons tells her with a slight growl in his voice. 

“As bad as it sounds, I hope to God that he is dead. I hope he suffered.” Angel tells him a growl. It wasn't as menacing as Lyons, it was cute.

“It’s not awful. By the sounds of it he was a vile man that didn’t deserve to live.” 

“That’s what my uncle Edward always said. He and my uncle Ken would push me to rebel against the norm and what was expected for omegas. I choose to go to work, I choose to go to college for art. It was my choice not his.” 

Lyons moved so he was closer to Angel and gently cupped her face, “Can I kiss you?” 

Angel blushed crimson, as her eyes went wide, “What-what-what-what did you say?” 

“Can I kiss you?” He repeats with a small smile. 

“I umm sure?” Angel tells him as Lyons smiled and leaned in. The kiss was something, Lyons chapped lips met her soft ones, Lyons beard scratched against her skin, and Angel’s legs felt like jelly as Lyons kissed her. She felt happy that an alpha was kissing her, and soon he pulled away. 

“I umm, I umm, think I should go to bed. Big day tomorrow.” Angel tells him, closing her sketch pad, as she stood and her legs still felt like jelly. She stood and nearly fell, but Lyons caught her and pulled her close, “Thanks.” 

“Your welcome. Angel promised me one thing?” 

“Sure?” Angel asks, her face feeling hot as she blushes. 

“If Kellogg is as dangerous as you told me, then please, please please be careful. Please be careful.” Lyons' request. 

“I’ll do what I can.” Angel tells him as she stood on her tip toes and kissed his check. 

************************************************************************************************************************************************************

“Hold still.” Hancock gently scolds as he cleaned the blood off Angel’s face. Kellogg was dead and Angel had learned nothing from the crazy mercenary. Her brother was with a group called the institute, a group who Angel had no clue who they were or what they wanted to do with her brother. 

“I can’t believe that I killed him.” Angel whispers and flinched as Hancock got the last of the blood off her face. Nick for the most part hadn’t said a word as he had been kneeling down next to the dead body. 

“Don’t worry ang we’ll figure out a way to find Shaun.” Nick tells her as he picks something off Kellogg's dead body. 

“But we don't know where, Nick. He even said that you don’t find the institute, the institute finds you. I just can’t.” Angel tells him trying not to cry. Hancock could only sigh as he pulled Angel into a tight hug as she dried heaved against him and then she started to cry. 

“Let’s get out of here, the stench is starting to get to me.” Hancock tells Angel, as Nick could only nod his head. 

“Yea, I don’t like the smell either.” Angel whispers. 

It was still day out, and the air was cool. Angel let out a soft sigh, as she pulled her jacket closer to her body. 

And then something that Angel thought she would never see again came into view. It was a airship, 

“People of the Commonwealth. Do not interfere. Our intentions are peaceful. We are the Brotherhood of Steel.” The airship announced as it flew over Fort Hagen stopping Angel from talking. She stood there slacked jaw at the site of the airship.

“Deep into that darkness, long I stood there, wondering, fearing.” Nick recites watching in horror. 

“Holy shit! The Brotherhood knows how to make an entrance. I'll give’em that.” Hancock mutters, shaking his head, as he lights up a cigarette. 

“They said brotherhood right?” Angel asks, wiping her tears away. Nick let out a snort, or what sounded like one. “Maybe Danse knows what’s going on.” 

“Think it’s wise to take me and Hancock?” Nick asks as Angel starts to laugh, it was nice to hear her laugh. 

“I don’t give a flying french fuck what Danse think. You guys came with me and helped me kill this mother fucker. So I don’t a fuck.” Angel tells them, wiping away her tears that came from her laughing. 

Nick and Hancock started to laugh as well, “Fair point kid.” 

The trio arrived back at the police station a few hours later. Angel had been glad that it took sooner to get here than it did the other day. The brotherhood had moved in. There were more people in suits of power armour guarding the entrance to the station and few more inside. It made Angel a little nervous, she moved closer to Nick who patted her on the back. Angel could make out Danse and he was happy chatting away with someone in power armour. Upon seeing the teen the paladin smiled.

“Angel,” Danse greets happily as the teen had returned but not so happy to see she brought the synth and ghoul with her, his expression quickly changed upon seeing the girl’s eyes red and tear streaks down her face, “What happened?” He demands. 

“I-I- I don’t want to talk about it.” She whispers rubbing her eyes with the heel of her palm. 

“Angel.” He says softly reaching out for her, 

“Not now Danse.” Nick snaps, eyes narrowed. Danse took a step back not in fear of Nick but in the fear he might be overstepping. 

“I was wondering if you knew what that airship was.” Angel asks him, trying to smile. Danse was not buying it but chose not to ask again.

“That airship was the Prydwen, she’s the brotherhood mobile base built in ruins of Adam’s Air Force base.” Angel quirked an eyebrow. That thing came all the way from D.C? “She carries with her, the hope of the Commonwealth.” 

“And that would be?” Angel asks curious as to what it could be. 

“Elder Maxson, our current leader, who wishes to speak with you.” Danse says pride in his voice as he speaks. 

“Why? Did you go and squeal on Angel?” Nick asks, not amused. Danse narrowed his eyes at Nick.

“All I told him Valentine was her heroism in aiding me at Arcjet and with my squad, now come.” Ending the conversation as he walked away. 

“Be on your toes kid.” Nick warns following after Danse. 

“Don’t need to tell me twice.” She whispers to Nick and Hancock. The four of them arrived on the roof to see a vertibird waiting for them, they left the world below them and ascended to the sky. The small plane touched down on a landing pad and none of them wasted time getting off. Waiting for them was a man who looked to be in charge.

“Elder Maxson is delivering his speech to the crew, you will be able to talk with him once he's done.” The man tells the group, “He is waiting for you on the observation deck.” 

“Thank you Lancer Captain Kells.” Danse tells the man. 

“I have orders to tell you that for the time being you're dismissed, paladin Danse. The elder wishes to speak with Miss. Gray.” Captain Kells tells the paladin. Danse slauted Kells and walked off. He gave Angel one last glance with a sad smile. 

“He knows about me?” Angel asks, taken back. 

“Yes, he is very excited to meet you. It’s very rare that we find an unbound omega from a vault, and one that is young and in good shape.” Captain Kells tells her, as Angel took a step backwards. 

“Not creepy.” Both Nick and Hancock say as Angel started to rub her arm. 

“It may sound a little creepy, but it is an honor to be recognized by Elder Maxson. Please head to the observation deck.” Captain Kells tells her, as Angel nodded her head. Angel, Nick, and Hancock headed for the observation deck, and then she heard Elder Maxson speaking. 

“Brothers and Sisters, the road behind us has been long and fraught with difficulty. Each and every one of you has surpassed my expectations by rapidly facilitating our arrival in the Commonwealth. You have accomplished this amazing feat without a hint of purpose or direction, and most impressively, without question. Now that the ship is in position, it is the time to reveal our purpose and our mission. Beneath the Commonwealth, there is a cancer known as “The Institute”, a malignant growth that needs to be cut before it infects the surface……” Maxson paused when he saw her. She walked right into him. 

Angel eyes went wide, and then she saw red as she marched up to ‘Lyons’ and punched him hard, the room went quiet, the members in attendance all let out a gasp, and were in shock. 

“You fucking assholes!” Angel growls at Maxson. 

Maxson let out a soft chuckle, as he rubbed his check, “Hello Angel.” 

End of line 


	12. End part 1

Angel had a burning feeling in her chest, it hurt to breath and she was grinding her teeth, she was clenching and unclenching her hand, it hurt from punching him. She had heard Lyons no ,Maxson greeted her but after that she had stopped listening, she was still trying to process everything that was going on. He had lied to her, he had toyed with her feelings, made her feel special, made her think that he had actually cared about her. Angel saw red as she bawled her hand up into a fist punched him a second time, there gasps of shock and whisper of what Angel had done, she punched Elder Maxson. It hurt, but it didn't make her feel good. None of that made her feel good. She had been made into a fool.

“I see that you're mad.” Maxson mutters rubbing his jaw. 

“MAD! I’m pissed! YOU LIED TO ME!” Angel yells at him, as she took a step forward, “You lied to me about who you were! You lied to me about everything!” 

“I didn’t lie about everything, I told you that I was in the brotherhood.” Maxson tells her, “I just hadn’t gotten around to telling you who I was.” 

“You still lied to me! You had the gall to lie to me, the gall to do this after everything. After what you found out about me.” Angel yells as she stomps her foot, “I knew it.” As she bitterly laughed.

“Angel, please.” Maxson softly says approaching her, as Angel took a step backwards, “I didn’t want to hurt you.” 

“But you did. You never cared about me, I can see that. You only cared about my status.” Angel whispers as she could feel tears start to well up in her eyes. 

“That’s not true, I do care about you.” 

“No, you don’t! If you cared then you would have been honest with me from the start.” 

Maxson took in a deep breath before he spock, “I never wanted to hurt you. I wanted to get to know you before you knew who I was.” 

Angel gave him a glare as she marched up to him and slapped him across the face, “YOU DON’T GET TO PLAY THE VICTIM CARD HERE! You lied to me! You toyed with my feelings, you were going to use me! You're just like him, all you care about is yourself. You don’t understand how I feel!” 

“I do care about how you feel, I was trying to avoid hurting you!” Maxson yells which made Angel take a step backwards out of fright, “Angel, I’m sorry.” 

“You're not sorry. If you were you would have told me the truth, if you cared you wouldn’t have lied to me. If you had any sherd of compassion then you wouldn’t have done this. Get fucked by a deathclaw.” 

Angel turned on her heel and left, with Nick and Hancock following after her. 

************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Angel’s eyes and chest hurt from crying. Her heart hurt as well, Lyons had lied to her, he never cared for her as a person just her status. It hurt to admit it but her father was right. No one could care about her as a person. Nick and Hancock hadn’t said anything, most likely letting Angel stew or not sure what to say. 

“Were here.” The pilot tells them, during Angel retreat from the prydwen, and as she played around with her pipboy she then landed on the radio and a message had come on, for Angel to come to the castle, it seemed that the pilot knew where that was. Angel saw it as the perfect way out to get away from the brotherhood. 

“Thank you.” Angel tells the pilot as Hancock and Nick got out. The pilot had landed in the parking lot, an empty parking lot with a small ruined dinner and in the distance was the castle, but something was off about it. 

“Angel, you okay sweetheart?” Nick gently asks as Angel sniffs. 

“I’m fine Nick, let’s go see what Pearston wants.” She whispers, hugging herself as she walked up the ruined and broken pathway.

“Nick.” Hancock whispers, looking at the old synth, “We gotta do something here.” 

“I know, but right now we let her be.” Nick tells him with a sigh, “She’s hurt and there's nothing we can do about it.” 

“You sure?” 

“Positive. I’m sure that neither her nor Preaston wants to start a war.” Nick tells him, sighing again. 

“Shit.” Was all Hancock could say as they both went to catch up with Angel. 

Angel had stopped less than ten feet away from the entrance of the castle, or Fort Independence as it was once known as. Angel could barely see the old revolutier fort. Going around the island was a series of fences. And not just any fences, it was a series of junk fences. Angel, Nick and Hancock walked up to the entrance of the junk fences, the gates were open but Angel didn’t know if she should go in or not.

“General.” Preston calls spotting Angel, that title caught Angel off guard. Preston had given her the rank of general for all the good she had done in her quest to find help. Which was still shocking all she did was help him in Concord and help a couple of settlements and boom she was general. Preston had been doing his rounds when he spotted Angel, coming in. 

“Hey Preston what’s going on?” Angel asks him confused. 

Preston could only smile, “You have to see the inside.” He proudly tells her, as Hancock and Nick could only share a confused look. Angel nodded her head yes and they went in through the gate and Angel's jaw hit the ground. The front law of the fort was turned into a massive garden. 

Angel could see red, yellow, green and purple bell pepper, ,onions,tomatoes,cucumbers, wheat, cattors spanish, corn, summer squash,eggplant, zucchinis, sweet potatoes, potatoes asparagus, bush beans,beets radishes,lettuce, cabbage, sage,basil, rosemary, dill, mint, parsley,thyme,oregon, lavender and garlic. Angel had to admit that this radioactive soil did wonders for all these vegetables to be able to grow and to grow murity so quickly.

“How were you able to get this set up so fast?” Angel asks as she walks between beds. 

“Codsworth and Struges. Under the suggestion from Struges, and support from the last few minutemen we took the castle back. Codsworth set to work getting this place cleaned up and livable. I’m not sure how, but that robot did it. With Codsworth's help we were able to set up this new garden and get the junk fences set up as well. Now I know what you're thinking, but we all helped build the fences. Somehow those crazy bastards found two wind turbines, while they were collecting scrap. We don’t need to rely on generators anymore. We have power, clean water and we have hot water to bathe in.” Preston tells her with a bright smile on his face, 

“But that’s not. We found a pair of old outposts called Spring Blossom Garden and Lucky Star Orchard. They were in dire need of medical aid, engineer aid and help with raiders. I went, along with Curie, Codsworth and Struges. They agreed to join the minutemen after we helped them. We got a crap ton of stuff from them. On top of that, Codsworth was able to download some new programs. Not sure what they are.” 

“Okay, so what did they give us?” Angel asks him as she cocked her head to the side. 

“Glad you asked. A lot of meat, pork and chicken, cream, butter, milk, flour, cornmeal, wool blankets, jam and jelly, some leather goods, glass jars, two brahmin, a bull, a small chicken coop, two goats and horse, sugar, apples, oranges.” Preston tells her, as Angel jaw dropped, “But wait. They gave Sturges plans on how to make a series of hydroponics grow beds, and he’s been working on that now.” 

“Why would they do that?” Nick asks him.

“It seems that the garden produces so much in the terms of goods due to the nature of the soil that they don’t know what to do with it. And since they can trade with all the minutemen settlements they don’t have overstock of goods anymore.” Preston explains. 

“What do they want from us?” Angel asks him. 

“As long as we keep there caravans safe, and send out Sturges and Curie every once and while they stay on.” Preston tells her. “Oh right that reminds me. Since we have wheat and corn they have something called a windmill and can use it to grind the wheat and corn into flour and cornmeal.” 

“Okay, that seems extremely fair.” Angel tells him nodding her head, “I’m glad the island kept its original shape and size.” 

“So am I, Codsworth also wanted me to tell you, that your room is set up.” Preston tells her, as Angel could only smile. 

“Well good, I'm going to head there now.” Angel tells him, turning on her heel and heading to her new room. 

“Nick was Angel crying?” Prestong asks the old synth. 

Nick let out a sigh, “Is there a place we can talk in private?” 

“Yes, Codsworth has set up a private room here for all of Angel’s companions.” 

“Good led on, this is going to be a doozy and I want everyone there for it.” 

The courtyard of the fort was busy, in the center was a large radio tower with someone sitting at, and she could see people coming and going with supplies for the gardens or supplies for the belly of the castle. And tucked away was the chicken coop. 

It didn't take much effort on Angel’s part to find her new room, the door said ‘ _General.’_ in big bold letters on the front with the minutemen flag on it and there was a dog door. Angel took in a deep breath, as she went into her new room, opened and closed the door. 

Angel jaw dropped again. The room was large, and nice. The floor had a rug on it, an off blue rug that covered the whole floor. Next to the door was a mannequin, which Angel took advantage of and removed her backpack, jacket, helmet and gun belt she took them off and put them on the mannequin. To the right of the room was a nice king size bed with clean sheets and pillowcases on it. At the foot of the bed was a large wooden chest with the minutemen crest carved on the front, and in the wall at the end of the bed was a modest fireplace. Next to the bed was a table with a clock and lamp. 

To the left of the bed was a large table with a chair, on the table was an impressive amount of art supplies, and more on the shelf above the table. Next to the table was a container with even more art supplies. Under the sole window in the room was a bookcase stuffed with books. And lastly there was a door in between the container and the mannequin, it was a bathroom with a bathtub. Angel almost wanted to cry, she toed off her boots and fell backwards onto her new bed. This was a nice way to end a crappy day.

Lyons was elder Maxosn. Lyons was Arthur fucking Maxson the hero of the Capitol wasteland. The man Maccready had talked about being some sort of hero. How he fought and killed a deathclaw when he was sixteen, how he brought the outcast back into the fold. A man who had omegas jumping at the chance to be his mate, how there were some willing to do dangerous and outrageous stunts to prove that they were worthy. It hurt even more that Danse knew who Lyons was. 

“Fuck.” Angel swears, as she buried her face into her pillow.

End of line 


	13. Chapter 13

Angel sat in the middle of her bed, she had taken a bath and while she was in there Codsworth had come and collected everything that needed to be washed. Her clothes, socks, sleeping bag, pillow, sheet, etc. He seemed happy to do what he used to do back before the war. 

Angel let out a sigh as she looked at everything left, some food, her canteen, med kit, sewing kit, bag of scrap clothes, sketch pad, charcoal pencils, hard and soft pastels, and for some reason a teddy bear, and a list of all the people she met that were now in a way her companions. 

Codsworth had told her, and she was double checking the list. There was Curie who was down in the infirmary, along with the reporter Piper who was taking inventory, Cait and Maccready were off trying to teach some of the minutemen how to fight and shoot, Nick and Hancock were in the common room with Preston.

“Well at least they all made it here.” Angel mutters as she looks at the teddy bear. Such a simple thing was making her feel okay, even those it smelled like Maxson. Angel had thought about giving the bear to dogmeat, but it was a nice gift. With a huff, Angel feel backwards and stared at the ceiling, this was a fucking mess. 

“Well fuck.” Angel hisses as she wanted to scream and shout. She wanted to punch him again to do something to make him pay but she couldn’t. Angel wasn’t sure what she wanted to do, she wanted something. As Angel was laying in bed, there was a soft knock. 

“General are you awake?” Preston asks through the door. 

“Yes, and you can call me Angel.” Angel tells him as she sits up with a huff. 

“Right, sorry. I was going to call a meeting with all the companions.” Preston tells her. 

“Alright give me a minute.” Angel tells him, pulling on her boots and jacket. Preston standing off to the side of the door. “Lead on.” Preston led Angel deep into the castle and they passed by the courtyard. Some of the recruits were there training in hand to hand combat and among them was a tall, muscular woman with long brown hair. She was going to town on the young men. Angel had to admit she was pretty.

“That’s Lieutenant Finn She helped me take control of the castel back from the mirelurks and has been helping me co-run the castle and minutemen while you were away.” Preston explains. 

Angel blinked a couple of times as she watched Finn fight, “Well alright. When I’m not here you and her are in charge.” Angel tells him. 

“General are you sure?” Preston asks, stunned by Angel’s choice. 

“Well yea. You two have been doing a damn good job since I’ve been gone. I trust you.” Angel tells him with a smile as she patted him on the arm.

Preston was speechless, "Thank you ma'am."

"No need for thank yous, you put a shit ton of faith into someone you just met." Angel tells him.

Preston and Angel arrived at what Preston called the common room. The room was nice and cozy. In the back of the room was a large fireplace with fire going, to the left of the fireplace was a door. To the right of the fireplace was a window. The floor was stone and looked very unwelcoming, in the center of the room was a coffee table and it was sitting on a rug. 

On either side of the coffee table were two long couches. The one on the left was red and yellow and the one on the right was blue and yellow. There were two comfy looking armchairs that were facing the fireplace but the backs were facing the main door. One of the walls had the minuteman flag on it, and placed to the right of the fireplace was a dog bed. 

And everyone was there. On the coffee table was a tray with a teapot, cups, a sugar bowl, creamer and a few cookies. Nick, Hancock and Maccready were on the blue and yellow couch, while Cait, Piper and Curie were over on the red and yellow couch. Codsworth had just come in from the side door with a folder of some kind. 

“Now that everyone is here we can begin.” Preston says sitting down in one of the armchairs, as Angel took the other one. 

“First, thing first, I’m glad that everyone made it here safe and sound, and happy to see the progress being done while I was away.” Angel says as Codsworh handed her the folder and busied himself getting drinks for everyone. 

“I am very grateful to see you again mademoiselle Angel, I’ve been worried.” Curie tells her. Angel had to force a smile on her face. It was an accident that she even found Curie, let alone vault 81, but she was happy to help the vault and to save the boy's life. And she was grateful to have someone (even those that someone was a Miss. Nanny) who had medical training. 

“Just glad to see Curie again. And Cait I was wondering if you were really going to come here or not.” Angel tells her as Codsworth handed her a cup. 

“You did buy my contract from Tommy.” Cait reimds her, as Angel winces. It was fluk that she found the combat zone and it was just not something Angel wanted to talk about either. She only bought Cait contract from Tommy because she felt guilty. Not that Angel killed any of the raiders, she somehow managed to find the backstage area and bought (read) bribed Tommy with a crap ton of caps to give her Cait contract.

“And Piper hope you're settling in well.” Angel asks. 

“Eh, it's not too bad. Curie has been giving me busy work.” Piper explains with a shrug. 

“Well alright shall we go over all the shit I missed out on due to me not being here?” Angel asks, taking a sip of her tea. Angel missed tea and Codsworth remembered how she liked cream with sugar.

“Of course mum,” Codsworth says, “As you can see I managed to spruce up this little area for you and companions to us as space to talk about your plans for the Commonwealth. I’ve also managed to salvage, with Sturges help a little kitchen/ dining room behind me.” 

“Well good on you Cogsworth.” Angel praises, “Curie seeing as you're our head doctor, how is the infirmary?” 

“A little worse for wear and not what I’m used to.” Curie tells her sounding sad but also happy in a way, “But, I shall make due as they say. One of the positives is that the room we choose for the infirmary has a room that is password locked. Me and mademoiselle Wright have been working tridless to make it comfortable.” 

“Don’t stress yourself out too much over it. Speaking of the password, who besides you and Piper has it?” Angel asks.

“You and Lt. Finn. We thought it best if only a select few knew what it was.” Piper tells her. 

“Alright that seems fair. Preston at the moment do we have a quartermaster?” Angel asks him. 

“I believe Finn took up that post. Not many people were going to argue with her about that. In the folder that Codsworth handed to you is a list of everything that we have in the castle.” Preston explains.

“Good to know, I’ll have to read over everything in there once the meeting is done. And go ahead and ask.” Angel muters as she takes a sip from her tea. 

Preston took in a deep breath, “What are your orders on how to deal with the brotherhood of steel? Nick and Hancock told us about your fallout with Elder Maxson.” 

Angel nearly choked on her tea, as she casted a small glare at Nick, “That is a good question. No one is to engage with the brotherhood of steel. We leave them alone, they will leave us alone. We are not going to make enemies out of them. I don’t want to risk a war on two fronts.” 

“What are you talking about?” Maccready asks, confused. 

“She’s talking about the Institute.” Nick tells him and everyone, “We found out who killed her uncle and took Shaun. If we try to fight both we could lose.” 

“And were not good enough to fight both the Institute and the brotherhood.” Angel simply says.

“We understand.” Preston tells her. 

“Thank you for understanding. For now I think, I'm going to read over what is in the older. And whenever the next trip to the new outposts is, I want to go.” Angel tells him, trying to smile. 

Preston smiled back at her, “Good news then. We have a shipment leaving tomorrow, and if you want to go tomorrow you're free to.” 

“Wonderful.” 

End of line 


	14. Chapter 14

Angel sat on a bench that was on top of the castle wall, as she slowly took small sips of her still hot cup of tea. The sun was just starting to peek over the horizon and the night sky was dissolving away and making way for the morning. There was a strange sense of calm that settled over the castle during the early morning hours, that didn’t seem to come again till late at night. Beyond the walls of the castle the mirelurks were starting to wake and do there creepy shit. Angel quirked an eyebrow as one got a little close to the castle and was soon killed by the turrets. 

“Fuck off.” Angel mutters as she takes a sip from her cup, Angel took in a deep breath as her eyes landed in the brotherhood of steel eyesore, what an awful sight. She would be going to Bunker hill today, “Good morning Danse.” She says grinning, knowing full well that he was the only other person up right now.

“Good morning Angel, I didn’t expect to find you awake this early.” Danse greets. 

“I don’t tend to get up early but this one of those few times. Care to join me?” Danse nodded his head yes and sat down next to Angel while avoiding the plate of corn bread, “You can have a piece if you want.” 

“Oh thank you.” Danse tells her to pick one of the pieces of cornbread. Angel let out a hum as her gaze went back to the sea and the eyesore. Angel knew why Danse was here, she would have to be pretty dumb not to. 

It had been three days since her little spat with the elder asshole, three days since she had been leading the minutemen. Just two days ago she had met with Lilith orchard and Luna Star, both were female alphas and ghouls. Both women were very sweet, and doting on Angel. As Angel talked to both women she had learned that many of the workers were there grandkids. Seemed that they got busy once things settled down. There kids married and had kids of there own so the farms were going strong. It was however a shock to find Danse waiting for her.

Turns out Danse wanted to help out, and Angel was in position to turn down help. Those she knew _why_ , elder asshole sent him, it was to spy on her. But, Angel would play along (for now). She agreed to let Danse stay under three conditions. One while he was at the castle he wasn't allowed to wear his power armour unless he was going on portal, two he would be co quaternaster with Finn, Angel was very worried about Finn. The older alpha did so much around the castle a little help would be nice. And last Danse would have to help train up the minutemen. Danse agreed to all three conditions pretty quickly. Not odd or suspicious at all.

“This is very good.” Danse tells her with a mouthful of food, “Sorry about that.” 

Angel gave a light chuckle, “It's fine Danse, you're not used to this yet I get it.” 

“I- thank you.” Danse tells her, “I heard you were going to bunker hill today.”

“I am.” She tells him with a smile, as the second mirelurk got close to the castle and was promptly killed. 

“Who are you taking with you?” 

“I was thinking about taking you and Maccready. Best to have you both with me.” She explains taking a sip from her tea, “Besides I’m definitely going to need your help.” 

“Oh?” Danse asks confused. 

“So do you know why we're going to Bunker hill today?” Danse shocked his head no, “As you know or not. Bunker hill controls most if not all the caverns in the Commonwealth and lately they have been getting mad at me. See they don’t like that I’ve been running caverns without there blessing or consent. And in order to make nice, I’m heading there to offer them a deal. We supply them, the goods we get from the outpost and there caverns give them to settlements we're currently having a hard time getting to right now. On top of that Lilith and Luna want to set up booths on the hill.”

“How do you plan to do that?” Danse asks her. 

“Well, I heard a rumor that Kessler the leader of Bunker Hill is having issues with some raiders. Chances are she will be more willing to listen to my deal if we help them out and I’m bringing some stuff to bribe her with.” Angel explains as Danse gave her a confused look, “Whiskey, gin, bourbon, brandy, vodka, wine, flour, cornmeal, coffee, tea, sugar. I'm sort of bringing two of each.” 

“Good idea.” 

“Thank you. We leave in an hour.” 

************************************************************************************************************************************************************

An hour later, found Dasne, Angel and MacCready flying to Bunker Hill. Angel loved flying if she ever had a chance she would love to draw the view from the plane. 

“Bunker hill is one of the most important battles during the american revolution.” Angel gleeful says as she was making sure she had everything. 

“What are you talking about?” MaCready asks cleaning his rifle. 

“The battle of Bunker Hill was fought on June seventeenth, 1775, during the Siege of Boston in the early stages of the American Revolutionary War. The battle is named after Bunker Hill in Charlestown, Massachusetts, which was peripherally involved in the battle. It was the original objective of both the colonial and British troops, though the majority of combat took place on the adjacent hill which later became known as Breed's Hill.” 

Angel bit her bottom lip and pulled her hamlet over her face, “Sorry.” 

“Why did you stop talking?” Danse asks very confused, he never heard of any of this before. Was Angel embarrassed? She had no reason to be, she sounded like she knew what she was talking about. 

“I was doing it again, sorry.” Angel mutters, “It do that sometimes, just forget I said anything.” 

“Why?” MacCready asks her, “I never knew of this. Why would you stop?” 

“It's just never mind. Look, we are here.” Angel tells them handing her bag to Danse as she got out of the plane and grabbing her bat. Struges who was a saint of man had upgraded Angel’s bat it now had nails in it. 

The matter wasn’t pressed as the trio made it to Bunker Hill. Kessler as it turned out was more than willing to set up a trade agreement with Angel, but she had to do something for her. A raider group called Zeller’s army had been attacking the hill’s caverann’s not something that Kessler could have. If Angel could clear out the army and kill Zeller and rescue the cavern hands then they would have a deal. 

“Kessler said that Zeller and his army are over at East Boston Preparatory School , that’s not too far from here.” Angel mutters as she was looking over her pipboy. They were seated at an outdoor table picking at some mole rat chucks. 

“So we walk there, killed the raiders, come back, and collect on the reward and call it a day.” MacCready asks with a smirk as he popped a chuck into his mouth, “Still don’t know how you got Kessler to raise the amount from two hundred to eight hundred caps, but I’m not complaining.” As he spit food onto the table. 

“You better not. We shouldn’t get paid for this. We're doing this to help the minuteman not to line your pockets.” Danse snaps.

“Don’t get all hissy with me. Kessler was offering us a reward, so why not take it?” MacCready snaps back. 

“Still getting into fights MacCready?” A deep gravelly voice asks from behind McCready. MacCready went still, as a cold shiver went down his spine. 

“Edward Deegan, what are you doing this far from beacon hill?” MaCready asks, shifting in his seat. Angel looked up from her pip boy to see a ghoul. A ghoul wearing road leathers, a newsboy cap and near complete set of combat armour he was just missing the hamlet. 

“What are you doing here Mac?” Edward asks him, sounding slightly impatient. 

“I was hired by the general of the minuteman.” MacCready tells him.

“The minutemen? Thought they were wiped out by gunners down in Quincy.” Edward asks as Angel felt frozen in her seat. 

“No, there still around and kicking in fact, hey boss?” MacCready asks as Angel got up from her seat and approached the ghoul. Edward was far taller then Hancock, hell he was taller then MacCready but he was just as muscular as Danse. 

“Hey boss.” MaCready warns trying to get her to sit back down. Edward Deegan was not a ghoul you messed with. He was a pre-war ghoul who had seen some pretty bad shit. 

“I don’t believe it.” Angel gasps, as she rushes Edward, the ghoul looked shocked but stood his ground as Angel tackles and hugs him. Edward didn’t even move at the sudden hug, he just smirked as he hugged Angel. 

“It’s been a long time Angel.”Edward tells her with a smile. 

“That it has uncle Edward.” 

End of line 


	15. Chapter 15

Angel was happy. From the moment she had left the vault she had been scared out of her mind. When things got bad she would remember what her family had taught her. And she had hoped that someone from her family was still alive. 

“Uncle Edward-can’t breath.” Angel squeaks out as she was getting a bone crushing hug from the ghoul. Edward let out a chuckle,

“Sorry sweetheart.” Edwar tells her, setting her back on the ground. Edward always had an easy time picking Angel up whenever he hugged her. “Look at you.” He says gently cupping the sides of Angel face, “You haven’t changed, how in the fuck is that possible?” 

“Well,” Angel says, rubbing back of her neck and looking down at the ground, “I was frozen for two hundred plus years.” 

“What the hell are you talking about?” Edward asks, squeezing Angel’s face, “Did vault tech do this?” 

“Yes.” Angel tells him, “The day the bombs dropped, me, uncle Ken and Shaun went to the vault. They froze us.” 

Edward had a hopeful look in his eyes with a smile “Did-did-did Ken make it out?” 

Angel removed her uncle’s hands from her face, and reached into her shirt and pulled out a set of dog tags and a gold wedding band with a diamond on the top, “I’m sorry.” She says removing the tags and ring and giving them to Edward. 

“How?” Edward whispers rubbing his thumb over the diamond. The ring Edward wore felt heavier, he knew deep down that Ken was dead. He never saw a body, but he knew.

“Killed, because he wouldn’t give them Shaun. I couldn’t do anything. I’m sorry. I took revenge on his killer if that helps.” Angel asks as she kicks a rock. 

Edward opened his mouth to say something but he was cut off, “Hey dad there you are. Well hello if it isn’t Angel.” Nate appeared. 

“Oh fuck.” Angel mumbles as she pulls her hamlet over her face. Angel hadn't meant to, but the smell of a nervous omega was filling the air, the smell of rotten fruit. Danse and MacCready got up from there seats, and stood behind Angel. 

“Nate what’s wrong?” Edward asks, pocketing the necklace.

“Just wondering where you were. Mom told us not to be long.” Nate tells his dad, as he got closer, which made Angel more nervous, “I haven’t seen you since Diamond city. Been wondering what happened to you.” 

“Angel?” Edward asks, grabbing and yanking his son backwards. Edward gave Nate a warning growl.

“Yea we meet at the Dugout inn. I’ve been busy doing shit. So uncle Edward want to come with us to kill some raiders? I’ll give you some stuff as thank you if you do.” Angel asks, shifting her weight from foot to foot. Nate’s eyes went wide, when Angel called Edward uncle. 

“Love to, and Nate, your coming with me.” Edward growls at his son. 

“Umm right dad.” Nate says with an eye roll.

“Wonderful.” Edward says letting go of his son's wrist and slinging his arm over Angel’s shoulder, “So sweetheart tell me all about the crap you’ve run into.” 

“You got it.” Angel tells him with a smile.

************************************************************************************************************************************************************

“And that’s everything.” Angel tells Edward as they walk along to the prep school.

“Christ, ang. I’m sorry.” Edward tells her, pulling her close to his side. Angel let out a squeak.

“Why? They wouldn’t have let you into the vault, there was only room for me uncle Ken and Shaun.” Angel tells him. 

“But, everything else. I’m sorry kid.” 

“Not your fault.” 

“So Angel question.” Nate asks cutting off his father, earning him a scowl from Edward, “So why would the minutemen make you there leader?” 

“Why are you asking that?” Angel asks him. 

“Well you're a female omega. Who would follow you, is all I’m asking.” Nate asks, which earned him a hard punch from MacCready. 

“Hey watch what you say. ” MacCready warns/growls.

“What it's harmless question.” Nate tells him. 

“A question you had no right to be asking.” Danse tells him. 

“Right, right, right. I just want to know why, is all.” 

“Because I’ve been helping people and trying to improve how things are.” Angel tells Nate, “Those I don’t see what me being a female or an omega has to do with it.” 

“It’s just rare to see an omega in a position of power.” Nate points out. 

“You should really be quiet.” MacCready warns, “Angel has done more good for the Commonwealth then you ever had.” 

Nate opened his mouth, “Nate shut up.” Edward warns, as Nate closes his mouth. 

***********************************************************************************************************************************************************

With Edward and Nate’s help they were able to clear out Zellars army and clean out the old school. The group went back to Bunker Hill and called it a night. Bunker hill was more than happy to hear that zellar was done with. And they agreed to help with the caverns and set up some stalls for Lilith and Luna.

“And here you go.” Angel tells Edward as she pulls out whiskey, gin, bourbon, brandy, vodka, wine, flour, cornmeal, coffee, tea, sugar from the bag. It was just her and uncle, MacCready, Danse and Nate had gone to drink, leaving the pair alone. 

“You got all this from two farms up north?” Edward asks eyes wide, looking at the items in front of him. 

“Yup, and now the farms will have booths here at the hill.” Angel tells him sitting with a huff, “No offense your kid is a dick.” 

“Don’t remind me.” Edward tells her with a slight eye roll, “I can’t take this.” 

“Yes, you can. I gave Kellser the same stuff, so you can take the extras.” Angel tells him, “I’m not asking for you to take it.” 

“You're telling me to. Alright. Ang are you okay?” 

“Yea, I guess so why?” 

Edward could only shake his head, he didn’t want to start a fight. “It’s nothing. Just happy to hear you hit that alpha that was being a dick to you all.” 

“You did teach me to punch. Just so you know, you can come to the castle at any time.” 

“And just so you, you can come to Cabot house at any time you want. No question asked.” 

“Thanks uncle Edward.” 

“Your welcome sweetheart.” 

End of line 


	16. Chapter 16

“Hey mac?” Angel asks as they were walking away from the hill.

“Yea boss?” Maccready asks keeping close to the young omega.

“Thanks for punching Nate for me.” Angel tells him with a smile, “That was really nice of you.”

“Oh umm your welcome boss.” Maccready tells her pulling his hat down to hide the slight blush that he had.

“That was very admirable of you.” Danse praises, “If you hadn't punched him then I would have. He had no right to talk to you like that.” 

“Danse is right, he was being di- a jerk to you for no reason.” Maccready tells her.

“Maybe.” Angel adds with a hum as they stopped at the old and rusted playground. Angel walked up to a rusted stake that was in the ground, she picked up a random melon that was on the ground and placed it on the stake.

“But, I'm pretty sure my uncle would have punched him.” Angel simply says as she took a batter's stance and swung at the melon,hitting and the melon shattered into pieces.

“You okay boss?” Maccready asks, as Angel let out a sigh as she sat down on the merry-go-round.

“Can I be honest with you guys?” Angel asks, placing her bat on the ground next to her.

“Affirmative.” Danse tells her, as Maccready sat down next to her.

“Well okay.” Angel starts to say as she pulled her hamlet off, “So uncle Edward isn’t really my uncle he is but he isn’t. Does that make sense? No, okay so. My uncle Ken and Edward were both alphas and they got married.” 

“Wait?” MacCready says, cutting her off, “That was a thing before war?” 

“It wasn’t uncommon for two alphas to get married. My uncles got discharged from the army for reasons. It was around that time that my older brother was born and my _parents._ ” Angel had to pause as she grinded her teeth at the word parents, “They were too busy to raise him, and they had me and my father wanted nothing to do with me.” 

“Due to your status?” Dasne asks her, as 

Angel nodded her head yes. “I’m sorry.” 

“Not your fault. And then five years before the bombs dropped Shaun was born. My older brother was at camp McClintock down in West Virginia. I don’t even know if he’s alive or not.” Angel admits pulling her knees up to her chest, “I miss him.” 

“What was his name?” MacCready asks. 

“Charon.” Angel tells him with a sad sigh.

MaCready sat there dumbfounded and Danse was slack jawed no, there was no way. “Umm Angel I have some good news for you.” MacCready tells her. Angel tilted her head to the side, “Your brother is alive.” 

“What are you serious?” Angel asks with a smile. 

“Very much so. He’s down in the Capital Wasteland.” Angel eyes lit up and she lunged and hugged Maccready, the sudden force sent the pair of the ground.

“Maccready thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!” Angel chanted hugging him.

“Your welcome boss. Just so you know he's a ghoul like Edward and Hancock.” Maccready lightly warns.

“He's alive. That's all that matters to me.” Angel tells him with a bright smile as she hugged Maccready tightly.

“I-your welcome.” Maccready tells her trying to hide his blush, “Could you umm let go of me?”

“Right sure, thank you so much Maccready.” Angel tells him, “Danse can you set off one of those vertibird signal grenades and let's head back to the castle.” 

************************************************************************************************************************************************************

The group safely arrived back at the castle, with Angel beaming as the plane landed. 

“Welcome back mum.” Cogsworth greeted the mister handy and was busy helping in the garden picking some fresh vegetables. 

“Hello Cogsworth.” Angel greets back with a smile. 

“You seem to be in high spirits, I take it everything went well at bunker hill?” Cogsworth asks. 

“Yes, very much.” Angel tells him clapping her hands together, “I’m heading to my room to write to Lilith and Luna, come get me when dinner is ready.” 

“Very well mum, oh mum. A messenger came earlier and he had a package for you. It’s in your room waiting for you.” Cogsworth explains. 

“Did they say who the package was from?” Angel asks him.

“No, mum. But I think it's fine.” 

“Aright.” Angel says heading to her room. 

Angel gently placed her gear back on the mannequins, as she kept an eye on the package. Carefully she opened the box to see that there was a full set of combat armor. She could smell Maxson on it, it was not hard to miss the strong smell of rum and chocolate on the armor. She had no clue why he would send this to her. Angel knew she needed better armor, the leather armor was good but not as good as the power armor that Danse wore. 

“Well, what to do, what to do.” Angel mutters picking up each piece of armor and looking it over. It was just a standarder set of combat armour, nothing had been changed. With a heady sigh, Angel replaced her leather armor for the combat armor. The combat armor would be much better for her in the long run. With that choice done, Angel went about writing to Lilith and Luna. It took her two hours to get the letters right, and then she had Nick check them over and then she sent the letters out with courier. 

Another two hours passed and Angel headed down to the dining room that had been set up for her and her inner circle. It had a long dining table with twelve chairs. There were two doors, one that went to the kitchen and one that led out to the main part of the castle. 

“Rosemary and garlic pork tenderloin, roasted potatoes, roasted bell peppers, and buttermilk biscuits.” Cogsworth announces to the dining room. Everyone but Angel, Nick, and Curie had some sort of alcoholic drink, Angel had milk and she was the last to sit down. She was in jeans and a t-shirt. 

“General, MacCready was telling us about the work you did for the hill.” Preston tells her as he starts to pile food onto his plate. 

“Preston you can call me Angel. And good, with the hill in our corner we should be able to safely move goods around the Commonwealth.” Angel tells him, as she was handed a plate of food. 

“I wonder how this will affect Diamond city.” Piper asks with a hum, “Most of there stock comes from Bunker hill.” 

“I don’t think it will affect them badly.” Angel tells her, “It just means everyone will be or should be getting better food and clothes. The upper stands people sound awful.” As she wrinkled her nose. 

“That they are.” Both Hancock and Piper whisper. 

Angel looked between the two as she started to eat, but didn’t say anything, “Anything else exciting happened mum?” Cogsworth asks her. 

“Yes, uncle Edward is alive and is a ghoul.” Angel tells the robot with a smile. 

“That is exciting mum. Is he coming for a visit?” 

“In the near future yes. I’m just happy to know that my uncle is alive and well.” 

“So am I mum. With master Edward and paladin Danse you’ll be able to train these men into a fighting force on par with the brotherhood.” 

“I wouldn’t go that far.” Angel says taking a bit out of her biscuit. 

“I agree with Angel.” Danse says, “What did your uncle do before the war.” 

“He and uncle Ken were in the army together. Uncle Edward went into the private sector, as a bodyguard, while uncle Ken became an MP for fort Hagen.” Angel explains. 

“I see, thank you.” 

“No problem.” 

End of line 


	17. Chapter 17

Early the next morning Angel was out feeding the chickens. Somehow she drew the short straw for this chore. The chickens were all waiting to be fed as they clucked at her. Angel let out a yawn as she was feeding the chickens, she had to question these chickens. The chickens were a little bit bigger and fluffier than before the war and seemed to be a tad smarter as well. Lilith and Luna had been kind to give them ten chickens, two silkie chickens, five plymouth rock chickens, two Rhode island red chickens and one leghorn chicken. Along with chicken feed.

“Good morning Angel.” Danse greets, as Angel gives him a handwave as she yawns, “What are you doing?” 

“Knitting a tea cozy.” Angel dryly tells him as she throws the chicken feed into the pen. “I’m feeding the chickens Danse.” 

Danse waited a few minutes before he spock, “Angel can we speak off the record for a moment?” 

“I guess so.” Angel tells him a little confused by his question. 

“Thank you, do you remember the first thing I told you?” 

“If I kill Rhy, make sure there aren’t any witnesses and to use a pillow.” Angel tells him with a straight face. 

“What?” Danse asks her puzzled by her answer. 

“What?” Angel repeats with an sweet smile, “Was it not to fuck a ghoul? No, don’t fuck snyths.” 

“Yes, but right now is not the time to talk about that. It has to do with the lost patrol.” Danse tells her. Angel nodded her head, as she yawned again. Chickens were happy eating the feed and there still some left in the basket.

“ You said something about them, and I’m quoting you here. ‘ _The last squad went in three years ago. They never reported back. Officially, they're missing, presumed dead.’_ Why are you bringing this up now?” She asks him, dumping the rest of the feed back into the bag. 

“I was wondering if you would like to go on an unofficial mission with me, to find them.” Danse tells Angel, “If we find anything I wish for them to get a proper burial.” 

“We might not find much Danse. It’s been what three years, what do you expect to find?” She asks, crossing her arms over her chest. 

“Holotapes, tags, anything. They don’t deserve to rot out there!” Danse says almost yelling at Angel, the young omega took a step back, but held her ground. “I’m sorry.” 

“No, I get it. There MIA, they should get a bruail. Do you know where we can start?” Angel asks him. 

“Yes. I just want this to be between the two of us Angel, and I want to leave immediately.” Danse requests. 

Angel let out a sigh, “Alright give me ten minutes.” Angel mutters. 

“Thank you.” 

“Welcome.” 

************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Angel made sure all of her ducks were in a row, before her and Danse left the castle. Angel was sporting her new combat armour and was impressed with how nice it felt. The plane landed outside of, 

“Med-tek research?” Angel asks as she jumps out of the plane. 

“The patrol was reported to have entered the Commonwealth from here. This building was the closest point of entry.” Danse explains killing some fearl ghouls, “Your pipboy should be able to find the distress signals left behind by the squad. 

“Huh.” Angel says flipping her pipboy over to the radio and finding ‘ _Distress signal_ ’ on the list of radio shows. “If you give me a minute I can figure out which way we're going.” She tells him as she started to point the pipboy in all four directions, “Look like we're going south. Danse stop playing with the fearls.” Angel scoffs as she heads off. In front of Danse was a pile of dead fearls. 

“Roger that.” Danse responds. The pair walked in silence following the beeping of the distress signal, and they came to the remains of a house. Angel had rightfully turned off the radio when the house came into view. Something about it felt off. It looked like someone had sent a bomb off inside of the house. Inside the house, were the powered and charred remains of power armour, and a cater in the middle of the house. To the left was the distress beacon and a skeleton in a suit of power armour. Danse was speechless. Angel looked around, found the distress signal and flipped it off. 

“This is, this is knight Varham. He was brave and smart may he rest in peace.” Danse whispers as he gently removes the tags from the skeleton's neck. Angel didn’t say anything as she stood there biting her bottom lip, she was shifting her weight from foot to foot. Danse picked up a tape from the armour and handed it to Angel. Wordless she popped the tape into her pipboy. 

_‘Paladin Brandis: ...ambushed on the road. We're outnumbered five to one! Varham, report!_

_Knight Varham: Core's down to 5%!_

_Paladin Brandis: We'll have to scuttle the armor. We can't let them have it-_

_Knight Astlin: Varham!_

_Paladin Brandis: Dammit! Astlin, set the self-destructs! Faris, fall back! We'll head for the old military base, then try to make it to our holdout. The code will be our callsign. All right, move! Move! Move!’_

“He died with honor and valor. The brotherhood will honor you brother.”

“The old base? The closest place I can think of is the old National Guard training yard.” Angel tells him with a hopeful smile on her face. “Maybe we can check there.” 

Danse gave Angel a soft almost meck smile, “Yes, maybe let’s head there then.” Angel flipped the radio back on and the distress signal was back. 

They made off for the training yard, the front building had six rusted and dead cars in front of it. Angel let out a sigh, as she started to head into the yard, but was yanked back hard by Danse. 

“The hell!?” Angel yells as she was tossed behind a concrete barrier. “DANSE!” 

“Stay down!” He orders pulling his gun out, and then Angel heard the sound of turrets shooting at them. Now Angel, understand. Danse had put her behind the barrier in order to keep her safe from the turrets. Angel looked at the ground in front of the entrance. Besides a few skeletons, she saw land mines. With a hiss, she picked a rock, right as Danse shot out one of the turrets. 

“Angel what are you doing?” Danse asks as she throws the rock and it triggers the land mines. “Good idea.” 

“Thanks.” Angel beams as Danse took out the last of the turrets, “Odd amount of security. What were they trying to keep in or keep out?” 

“I don’t know, are you okay?” 

“I’m fine and thanks.” 

“Your welcome.” 

***********************************************************************************************************************************************************

The inside of the main building smelled awful, it smelled of death and decay with the smell of sorrow. The main floor was in shambles with broken pieces of the ceiling, broken glass and so much more. The floor was littered with now dead ghouls. Danse approached a small room. 

The door was broken, with claw marks and blood. In the room was a mess. The desk and filing cabinet was turned with more blood and dead ghouls. In the back of the room was a distress beacon and a skeleton, the skeleton was dressed in the tattered remains of a brotherhood orange jumpsuit. Danse had knelt down next to the skeleton, before he spock.

“Her name was knight Astlin, she was brave and kind. May she rest in peace.” Danse whispers, finding a holotape next to her body, he handed it over to Angel. Who played it. 

_‘Knight Tara Astlin. Brotherhood of Steel Recon Team 429-Alpha. Serial number 3431. It's been three hours since I set my distress pulser. There's been no word from the Paladin or Faris. Their objective was a satellite array on the coast. They may be out of range. My orders were to hold this position at all costs. The entire site has been overrun. The door won't last much longer. Paladin Brandis, sir. It's been an honor, sir.’_

“She died with honor and valor. The brotherhood will honor you sister.” Danse whispers, gently removing her tags. 

“Danse?” Angel asks softly, reaching out and touching his arm. 

Danse was quick to move his arm, “What is it?” 

“We should head out to the satellite array, we might be able to find Faris there.” Angel tells him with a meck smile. 

“Your right, let’s head out.” 

Angel paused as she looked back at Astlin, the way she died was horrible, “Danse are you okay?” 

“I’m fine. Every member of the brotherhood knows the risks when they join a recon patrol.” Danse tells her in a monotone voice. 

“If you say so.” Angel whispers as they left the building behind. 

They hiked to the satellite array, and Danse let out a string of curses. The array had been overtaken by super mutants. Angel and Danse were hiding in the bush close to the shore. 

“Super mutants.” Danse growls, “The scourge of the wasteland.” 

“It looks like Faris beacon is coming from that dish.” Angel whispers pointing to the dish. 

“There’s not much of a chance that the pair of us can take out all of these mutants. Let us fall back and call for backup.” Danse urges. 

“How about we sealth it?” Angel asks, removing her bag, and pulling something out her bag, “I did so happen to find a stealth boy a while back.” 

“That’s only good for one person.” Danse tells her, as Angel looked down at the stealth boy, “No! No, no, no.” 

“What other choice do we got?” Angel asks with a hiss, “You're too big and nosy and to sneak in.” 

“I’m not going to let you risk your life for this. We will have to find another solution.” 

“We don't have one.” Angel tells him, “Danse trust me okay?” 

Danse let out a sigh knowing he wasn’t going to win. “Alright just be careful.” 

“It wasn’t like I was going to star in one waman Broadway play.” Angel tells him with an eye roll. 

Danse wasn’t sure how to answer that, as Angel flipped on the stealth boy and headed in. She was quick, yet quite as she moved around the super mutants and she did find Fairs. Or what was left of Fairs. Sadly there wasn’t much left. The super mutants had picked his body clean leaving to nothing behind. She did find his tags and a holotape and booked it out of here. Danse and Angel regrouped at an old trailer and Angel played the holotape. 

_‘Scribe Faris: It's been... two hours since the Paladin left. My leg... I can't staunch the bleeding. Bullet must've hit an artery. Brandis... if you get this... I hope you make it back to Astlin in time. There was nothing you could do for me. Get to the bunker up north. You'll survive. That's all that.. all that matters…’_

“Smart of them to have a fall back point, let’s go.” Danse orders, while Angel falls in line behind him. The hike led them north, to places Angel hadn’t been yet. The landscape was dead, and chalk full nasty shit. They ran into bloodbugs, mirelurks and a rogue mister gutsy. 

“Recon bunker Theta.” Angel reads out from an old forgotten vine curved sign. The old bunker was hidden well into the side of the rock face, Angel looked at Dasne and he looked calm. Angel wasn’t sure if this was due to his training but his face was devoid of emotions, “You okay Danse?” 

“I'm unsure what we will find.” Danse admits in a soft tone, “What if it’s another dead body?” 

“Don’t know till we put the number in. You can do it if you want.” Angel suggests with a smile. 

“Thank you.” Danse tells her putting the number in, the bunker door swung up with a bang, and with shot. 

“ANGEL GET DOWN!” Danse orders pulling his rifle free. Angel didn’t know what to say as she ran for cover, but caught sight of something. It was an old man with long and wild gray hair, an unruly gay bread, and a black jumpsuit. 

“Danse, hold up!” Angel yells before the paladin could do anything. Angel slowly walked into the bunker with her hands up, 

“Paladin Brandis?” Angel asks in a soft and comforting voice. 

“Stop! Who goes there friend or foe?” Brandis barks out, Angel stopped with Danse right behind her. Brandis grip was shaky, as the gun wavered in his hands. 

“I’m friend paladin.” Angel tells him. 

“I don’t know you, who are you?” Brandis barks out again. 

“Paladin Brandis? It’s me paladin Danse.” Danse quickly says. Danse was in shock, Brandis was alive? 

“Danse? How-how-how did you find me?” Brandis asks the pair as he lowered his gun. 

“We-we-we got lucky I suppose.” Angel tells him as she looks at Danse, as he gives her a head nod. “We found the remains of your squad, and there tapes led us here.” 

“So there dead. I tired-tired to go back for them. But, I couldn’t.” Brandis tells them as he looks to the ground ashamed of his actions. 

“It’s time to come back to the brotherhood paladin.” Danse orders, which got him a glare from Angel. 

“I can't, I'm too old. I’m not worth anything.” Brandis tells them. 

“You might not be able to offer field support but, I’m sure that they could use your intel.” Angel tells Brandis, “You’ve spent the last three years gathering intel on the raiders, gunners and the mutants right? I’m sure as hell, that you’ve mapped out the area? They could use you.” 

“I-I-I your right. The brotherhood is flying blind, they are going to need me.” Brandis whispers, “I’ll pack my things and head to the airport. Thank you, but who are you?” 

“I’m general Angel Grey of the Commonwealth minute.” Angel tells him with a smile, as she holds out her hand, and Danse hands her a flare, “You can use it to signal a ride to the airport.” 

“Thank you miss.” 

“You're welcome paladin.” 

************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Angel and Danse were sitting on the hill above the bunker. Angel was laying on her back, while she looked at the sky. Angel let out a content sigh as she was watching the clouds pass by and what she hoped were birds making noise, Danse was kneeling down next to her, as he cleaned his gun. 

“Angel, thank you.” Danse says as he paused in his cleaning, “I was prepared to find the bodies of my fallen brothers and sister, but deep down I was holding out hope. If I'm being honest I didn't think that you would convince Brandis to rejoin the brotherhood.” 

“You don’t need to thank me Danse. Brandis needs to be back with the brotherhood, I can even begin to imagine what type of hell he's been through out here.” Angel tells him as she starts to use her finger to make shapes out of the clouds, “You’ve done nothing but, try and help me. And I feel as those I need to repay that.” 

Danse looked at her shocked, “You don’t need to do that Angel. I did it out of a desire to help you.” 

“Even those I’m omega?” 

“I didn’t help you because you're an omega, I did because you needed someone to help you.” Danse states that statement caught Angel off guard. 

“Fuck man.” Angel tells him with a bitter laugh. 

“Angel, there is something I need to tell you something. I tried to urge Arthur to tell you the truth, I told him that lying to you was the wrong move.” 

Angel looked at Danse and could only blink and stare at him as she started to growl, “What the fuck!? He still lied to me, even after you urged him not to!” 

“I’m sorry he did that to you.” Danse tells her, as Angel was still growling. It wasn’t as scary or as intimidating as an alpha, it was sort of cute. 

“I’m not mad at you, I’m mad at him. What a fucking asshole.” She growls at him. 

Danse was ready to say something they both heard the sound of a vertibird approaching. But, instead of landing to get Brandis it flew overhead and away from them. 

“I wonder if they are going to Greentop Nursery. Preston told me there was a settlement around here called that.” Angel informs Danse. 

“I wonder what they are planning to do there.” Danse ponders, as he stood with Angel next to him with a scowl on her face, “Shall we investigate?” 

“Lets.” Angel mutters. 

Angel and Danse were quick to follow after the vertibird landed on the road. The settlement was small with a single ruined house and a greenhouse. In front of the house were two paladins in power armour, five knights and a couple of scribes. And they were chatting with the settlers. Angel and Danse approached with caution, right as one of the settlers told the paladin no, and was promptly punched. The settler stumbled backwards holding her face.

“THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!” Angel yells running over to the group. One of the knights spun around punched Angel. Angel staggered backwards, onto the ground.

“ANGEL!” Danse yells. 

End of line 


	18. Chapter 18

Angel’s face hurt. She wasn’t expecting that asshat to punch to her. What the hell was that guy's problem? Angel sat on the ground, she could hear Danse calling her name and asking if she was okay, the settlers were standing there shocked and had let out gasps of shock while the two paladins, knights and scribes were all laughing at her. Why? Why was this happening to her, all the brotherhood asshats were alphas and they were mocking her. 

“Angel? Angel are you okay?” Danse repeated as the paladin had knelt down next to her. 

“I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m fine.” Angel repeats to Danse, as she let out a hiss of pain. She had touched her face, and it hurt. 

“You sure?” He asks as Angel nodded her head yes. Danse gave his own nod as he stood and casted a glare at the knight who had punched Angel. 

“Knight Brown.” Danse hisses/orders, the knight in question went as a white as a sheet and stiff as a board. 

“Paladin Danse sir, I didn’t see you there sir. What are you doing here?” Brown asks saluting the paladin, the other knight, paladin's, and scribes also saluted. 

“That's, classified knight. Now I won't ask again knight, what are you doing here.” Dasne demands of Brown. For the most part Angel was happily sitting on the ground, as she pulled out an ice cold nuka cola and pressed it against her face. 

“Well-you-see sir we have orders.” Brown stammers out, as he shrank back. 

“Well who the fuck gave you, your orders?” Angel asks, Brown glared at Angel but didn’t answer her. Angel rolled her eyes at Brown and flipped him the bird. 

“Answer the question knight.” Danse orders with a snarl. 

“It was Proctor Teagan sir.” Brown tells Danse, “He ordered us to go out to the local settlements and ‘persuade’ them to give us half of there crops. We heard through rumors that the settlements were getting some pretty useful supplies.” 

“Whose Teagan?” Angel asks, confused as she tilted her head to the side. And pissed off at the same time. Angel let out a snarl, which only earned a laugh from the brotherhood.

“He’s the quartermaster.” Danse simply tells her, “Does Elder Maxson know you're doing this?” 

“Well-umm- were not sure sir.” Brown tells him. “But, I’m more than positive that he does know.” 

Danse narrowed his eyes at Brown, “Are you so sure? I doubt Elder Maxson would allow this. We're here to win over the people of the Commonwealth not bully them.” 

“And you're doing such a great job at that.” Angel sarcastically says with an eye roll. 

Brown made a move to get in front of Angel, but Danse blocked him. Danse spoke in a cold and monotone voice, “All of you are ot report to Prydwen now! I will be talking to Elder Maxson about your behavior here today.” 

“Sir, yes sir.” They all say leaving. Brown had a look of disgust on his face as he glared at Angel. Who the fuck was this bitch and what right did she have to smell like the elder.

************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Danse was not happy, he made sure that Angel was okay at the castle, before he went to the prydwen. Danse had heard rumors about the type of crap Teagan had gotten into back in the capital wasteland. He had hopped that Teagan wouldn’t try and pull anything like that here. Let alone attack minuteman settlements. Danse found Maxson easy enough. The young elder was in his room, with the door open. He was sitting at the lone table, looking over reports and softly muttering under his breath. Next to him was a half empty bottle of brandy and a still smoking cigar.

“Permission to enter?” Danse asks as Arthur had yet to look up from his reports. 

“Permission granted, what can I do for you Danse?” Arthur asks him. Danse didn’t say anything as he entered Arthur's room and quickly shut the door behind him. Arthur didn’t say anything but did raise an eyebrow, but still had his eyes glued to the reports. 

“Permission to speck freely sir?” 

“Granted, Danse what is going on?” Arthur asks, sounding annoyed by the paladin's actions.

“Thank you sir. While I was out with General Grey and running a personal mission we came across something rather odd. It was a brotherhood patrol, and they were attacking a minuteman settlement.” Danse tells him, Maxson head shot up from the reports with a look of shock and horror on his face, 

“Care to repeat that?” Arthur orders his voice neutral, as the reports in his hands started to crinkle in his hand. Arthur went stiff, as he was trying not to growl. 

“They attacked a settlement sir. General Grey was also hurt, nothing too serious just a punch to the face.” Danse tells him. Arthur didn't look convinced by his words, “She's fine Arthur.” 

Arthur let out a sigh as he pitched the bridge of his nose, he was still stiff “Did they tell you why?”

“Yes, they told me that they were acting upon orders given to them by Proctor Teagan.” Danse tells him.

Arthur's eyes went wide with shock and then anger, “Teagan?! What was that man thinking?” 

“I don't know Arthur. For from what I could gather the patrol hadn't had time to steal the supplies. They did attack one of the settlers.” Danse quickly explains watching as the tension slowly leaves the elder’s shoulders as he sets the reports down.

Arthur let out a second sigh, as he started to rub his forehead, “Is she alright?”

Danse had to hold back his laughter, “Yes, Arthur she's fine. Annoyed but fine.” 

“I see thank you. Who was it Danse?” Arthur asks him, as he messages his eyes. Part of him wanted to finish the rest of the brandy.

“Knight Brown.” 

Arthur let out a growl, “I'll make sure that he is demoted back to the initiate, for his actions.” Arthur let out a soft growl, “Was she unarmed?” 

“Yes, sir.” 

“I see. I'll make sure that she gets a formal apology as well. Thank you Danse.” 

“Your welcome sir. And I'm sure that she will apprentice the kind gesture.” 

************************************************************************************************************************************************************

“I won’t lie, I wasn’t expecting this.” Angel tells Danse, in her hand was a hand written apology. 

“He does feel awful.” Danse tells Angel. Angel let out a snort as she fell back against her bed. 

When Danse arrived back at the castle, Preston told him that Angel was in her room. Angel had been lying on her bed with a bottle of nuka cola pressed against her face and the song ‘ _I don’t want to set the world on fire’_ was playing on the pipboy, and was down to a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. 

“Did he know?” Angel asks him. 

“No.” Was Dasne blunt and honest answer. 

“You don’t need to lie and cover for him.” Angel tells him, letting out a bitter laugh. Danse was ready to answer when in came, Curie. 

“Bonjour Monsieur Danse, how are you feeling ma chérie?” Curie asks as Angel gives her a thumbs up, Curie was holding a wrapped something and swapped it out for the soda, “I’m sorry to tell you this ma chérie but the bruise will last you fourteen days.” 

“Sound about right, thank you Curie.” Angel tells her, as Curie said a quick thank you and told her to hold it there for thirty minutes and she would be back. 

“Are you in pain?” Danse asks, as Angel had closed her eyes. 

“A little but, I’m fine. Thank you for delivering the apology and for telling elder Maxson.” Angel tells him with a sigh, “If you don’t mind, I would like to be alone.” 

“Not, all. I’ll take my leave.” Danse tells her, which got him a thumbs up.

End of line 


	19. Spring Blossom

It was a slow two weeks of running around and doing good for the Commonwealth. And Angel was getting slowly pissed off at the brotherhood of steel. For the last two weeks Angel kept getting reports about the brotherhood attacking and stealing supplies from her settlements. By the end of the second week Angel had twitch in her eye. Preston suggested that Angel invite elder Maxson to come over and talk, which she did. But, it just happened that it was on the day she was heading to, star orchard and spring blossom garden. 

“Fuck my life.” Angel groans as she rubs her eyes, trying to get the sleep out of her eyes. She was standing outside of the castle, as the sun was still rising.

“Sorry, general.” Preston apologies, “Looks like Luke and Lucas fairy are here along with Ethan and Jessie blossom.” Angel blinked to see the two covered wagons, and they were being pulled by two, oxen. The oxen were two headed much like the cows and they looked bored.

“Is elder Maxson here yet?” Angel asks, watching as the wagons were getting loaded up. 

“No, when he does arrive do you want him to join you?” Preston asks her. 

“That would be nice. Also please go tell Maccready, Danse, Hancock, Nick, and Cogsworth that we're leaving soon.” Angel tells him. 

“Yes, general.” 

“Preston you and Finn are in charge till I get back.” 

“Yes, general.” 

Angel gave him a thumbs up as she went over to the wagons. The wagon for lucky star orached, a hand stitched orchard with a star on the canvas, while the spring blossom wagon had a lovely set of blossoming flowers on it. 

Angel said hello to Luke and Lucas are here along with Ethan and Jessie. The four young men (all alphas) also said hi back. As Angel was seated on the back of the star’s wagon a plane landed. And out came elder Maxon, along with two paladins and two knights all wearing power armour. But, not Maxson, no he was sporting that damn leather jacket of his. The jacket that was super warm and comfy and Angel wanted it. Damn her omega side.

“Your pouting.” Luke tells her, as Maxson came over with his guards. Angel gave him a soft growl as Luke backed up and went back to work. 

“General.” Maxson greets, with a nod. 

“Elder.” Angel greets back with a yawn, “To damn early.” 

“It has to be this early to avoid the raiders and gunners.” Ethan tells her, “Were all but done Angel.” 

“Thank you, we're just waiting on my people and here they are.” Angel tells, as everyone arrived. 

“Alright here’s how it's going to go down. MacCready your riding up front with Luke, Danse your riding with Ethan. Lucas you're riding in the back with Nick and Hancock, Jessie you're in the back with me, Cogsworth and elder Maxson. Since we're going to go see Lilith first, Ethan wagon is going first and then Luke. I want two minutemen in the front, along with those knights, the last two minutemen in the back, along with the paladins.” Angel orders. Everyone but the brotherhood did as they were told. 

“Well? You heard her get to it!” Maxson orders, as the paladins and knights did as they were told. And see they were off. Angel settled down in the back of the wagon as did Cogsworth and elder Maxson, Jessie seated himself up front. 

“Thanks.” Angel tells him, she buttoned up her jacket. It was too damn cold out today. 

“You welcome.” Maxson tells her, he knew why she was thanking him. “If I may ask where are going?” 

“Spring Blossom Gardens, it's a settlement up in the far north. It's going to take a few hours to get there. It's run by a woman named Lilith Blossom, she’s a ghoul now. But, back before the bombs dropped the place was an off the grid co op. And there doing great. They have a farm, farm house, a barn, bunkhouses, and the green houses all have solar panels and there is a grain windmill, a butter churn, kiln to make glass and bricks and a loom. But don’t get any ideas.” Angel warns with a yawn. 

“Why?” Maxson asks as Angel let out a chuckle, as did Jessie. 

“The perimeter of both orchard and spring blossom have a large fence with turrets, a sentry bot and a few police protectrons. And they watch dogs.” Jessie tells him with a smirk, “Those we were having some raider issues, but that's in the past.” 

“Thank god.” Angel tells him, as she starts to rub her hands up and down her arms. It was too damn cold. Maxosn let out a small hum.

“Angel, would you please come here.” Angel gave him a confused look, Maxson held up his hands in defense. “I'm not going to hurt you.” Angel rolled her eyes and carefully walked over to him. Maxson removed his jacket and handed it to her.

“Why are you giving me this?” Angel asks, looking at the jacket. 

“Your cold. I'm fine.” Maxson insists. Angel rolled her eyes but took the jacket and put it on. 

She sat down next to him, settling down next to him and pulling the jacket closer. And she did miss this, what they were before she found out and found out that he lied to her. She missed how comfy and right this flet. She missed how warm and comfy the jacket felt and how nice it smelled. Angel slowly starts to nod off, from the swaying motion of the wagon and thanks to the warmth of the jacket.

************************************************************************

Angel was woken by Cogsworth. They had arrived at spring blossom. Angel let out a yawn, and removed Maxson's jacket and left the back of the wagon. It appeared that Angel was the last one out of the wagon. Maxson was talking with Ethan, and Jessie while Nick, Hancock, Macready, Danse were waiting to unload the wagon Angel was in. The paladins and the knights were off to the side taking among themselves.

“Great.” Angel mumbles with a yawn. Just like Jessie had told Maxson, the perimeter of spring blossom had a large looming concrete wall. The top of the wall were turrets and barb wire, a sentry bot and more than a police protectrons were patrolling around. The front entrance had a large wooden gate that was up. 

“Angel, you're up great.” Jessie says as Angel cracked her neck a few times. “Grandma wants to see you at the farm house.Once the chores are done were going to have some breakfast.” 

“Alright, I’m going to head up to the farmhouse. Elder Maxson, Nick, Hancock, Dasne and MacCready when you're done, please join me at the farm house.” Angel says, leaving them to do some work, and she didn’t wait for an answer as she followed Jessie. 

The coop was like a little town. There were people and animals working around. The people were going about doing there chores or talking as they worked. In the center of the co op was a large, brick, rustic farmhouse. Angel had heard that Lilith had a dozen or so pups following the end of the war. And the sheer size of the house did support that rumor.

Jessie knocked on the door and Angel went in, and boy. She wasn’t expecting this. In the dead center of the room was a medium sized island, the island was made out of wood while the top was made out of a darker wood. 

On the sides were shelves with jars. On the island were sorts of jars and a knife block, there was also a basket of eggs, and on one side of the island were a set of stools. Behind the island was a long stretch of counter space, a sink, and oven and stove top. Above the counters were cupboards with cravings on them, on the counter were more jars and some small boxes. Hanging from the ceiling of the kitchen were dried and drying vegetables and herbs. There was even a refrigerator. Off to the side was a large table set for breakfast. In front of the counter was a female ghoul. The ghoul had long blonde hair done in a fishtail, and she was wearing a powder blue dress. 

“Hello Lilith.” Angel greets, Lilith was humming as she was mixing something in a bowl. 

“Good morning Angel,” Lilith greets, as she was mixing the bowl, “Do you mind helping me with breakfast?” 

“Not at all.” Angel tells her with a smile. Angel and Lilith finished up breakfast which was quiche, bacon, sausages, pancakes, hash browns, fresh fruit, tea, coffee, milk and juice. Angel and Lilith were placing the final touches when the men arrived, 

“Where’s Cogsworth?” Angel asks as she was cleaning her hands of pancake batter. 

“He said something about going to weed the vegetables.” MacCready tells her, “This looks amazing.” 

“Thank you. Why don’t you clean up and we can eat.” Lilith tells him with a smile. 

Everyone tucked in and food passed around the table, and light conversation had begun. And then it got weird.

“Angel dear when was the last time you had your heat?” Lilith asks. Angel nearly choked on her food, along with everyone at the table.

“What, what, what, what?” Angel asks, pounding on her chest a few times, as her face started to get hot, as she looked down at her food.

“No, need to be embarrassed dear. I've had several children who were omegas.” Liltah tells with a warm and slightly creepy smile 

“Still doesn't give you the right to ask her that.” Hancock tells her with a scowl.

“Oh hush, it's quite alright.” Lilith tells him, while Angel was busy playing with her food.The quichie was pile a small pile of mush, and the hashbrown were slowly turning into a small pile of mush. 

“It's inappropriate to ask. Can't you see that you're embarrassing her.” Maccready snaps at the ghoul, “I grew up in a cave, and I know better then to ask.” As he shoves food into his mouth. 

“Why are you even asking.” Nick asks the ghoul with a scowl.

“There's a fine strapping young alpha, sitting here. Who I might add had a crush on your dear general.” Lilith tells him with her gaze lingering on Maxson, all along Angel was trying not to shrink into the floor, “Now don't be shy dear. You know for the first five years after the bombs dropped, heats and runts were out of synch. I was just wondering if Angel being frozen for so long is throwing her heat out of cycle. My youngest would get his heat every two week of the month.” Angel's face went crimson, as she was slowly eating.

“It's more out of concern than curiosity, still not something you should ask.” Danse tells her, as he locked eyes with Maxson who also looked embarrassed.

“I don't get heats anymore.” Angel softy says as she ate some fruit. Everyone turned to look at Angel.

Lilith let out a gasps as she placed a hand to her chest, “Angel my dear I'm so sorry. It is due to being frozen.”

Angel's head snapped up, her face was crimson as she bit her bottom lip. “Well, I ummm you see.” She softly says as she fiddles with her food.

“Can't you see that you're making her nervous and upset!” Arthur snaps with a growl.

“Don't you dare growl at me!” Lilith snaps back with a deep growl. Arthur let out another growl and didn’t back down. 

“It's fine.” Angel says as she took in a deep breath, “Your pre war like me and Nick. Do you know what heat sickness is?” 

“Oh dear.” Lilith gasps as her face falls, “Oh sweetheart, I’m so sorry.” 

“Heat sickness?” MacCready asks as he quirked an eyebrow, “What the he- heck is heat sickness?” 

Angel took in a deep breath, “Back before the war there was a rare illness that one and ten omegas would get. It would make them very sick. In fact they would get violently ill before and after there heats. And during there heat it was less than okay. I was one of those omegas, it got so bad that I would have to go to the doctor after my heats.” 

“Dear God that sounds awful.” Danse gasps.

“Crap.” Maccready mutters, looking embarrassed.

“But, you're okay now. Right?” Hancock asks her. 

“Sort of. There was no real cure for this, back before the war. The only way to fix it as with a surgery that would put an implant in my arm. Thus stopping me from getting my heats. The doctor said that it could be removed, and if I did I would be okay.” Angel explains eating.

“If old Nick's memories are right, _you-know-who_ wasn't too happy about the surgery.” Nick asks, as Angel nodded her head yes, “ _He_ was a right bastard that man.” 

“ _He_ was but thankfully, he didn’t have guardianship over me at the time. Those _he_ , uncle Ken and uncle Edward got in quite a heated debate over it. And in the end they won and _he_ walked off and said something I don’t care to repeat.” Angel admits as she ate her fruit. 

“I hope that asshole is rotting in hell.” Nick states. 

“Same Nick same.” 

***********************************************************************************************************************************************************

“You know I never did say thank you.” Angel tells Maxson as they were feeding the pigs, after breakfast. After breakfast Lilith had sent them out to do some more chores before they left to go see Luna. 

“Thank you, for what?” Maxson asks with a teasing smile as he watched the pigs eat the slop. 

“For giving me your jacket. I didn’t realise how cold or tired I was.” Angel admits as she leaned against the pig pen. “Do you think any less of me?”

The question caught Maxson off guard, “No.” 

“No?” Angel asks with a bitter laugh, “You would be the first alpha I met that said that. I’m only half an omega.” 

“No, you're not.” Maxson tells her as he moved his hand to cover hers, “You're the way you are due to a medical reason.” Angel looked down at his hand, and she could only smile.

“Thanks.” She whispers, she didn't remove his hand from hers.

“Your welcome.” He tells her with a smile.

End of line 


	20. Chapter 20

Right before noon the group left spring blossom behind and headed for lucky star. Lucky star orached was just heavily defended as spring blossom was, but it was bigger. It was only bigger due to the large apple orchards that they had. The inside was similar to that of spring blossom including the house. Luna star was a per-war ghoul, who wore a soft brown wing, and wore jeans, with a light green shirt and boots. She asked the group if they could go apple picking before lunch, which they agreed to. 

“I personally can’t say which is my favorite apple.” Angel sasy as she picked some ripe gala apples, Angel was shocked and happy to see that out of all the fruit in the commonwealth apples were the only ones not mutated, “I do love a gala, but a honey crisp apple you can’t go wrong.” 

“What about red and golden delicious?” Nick asks as he and Hancock were picking the red delicious. 

Angel let out a hum, “You got me there but I only use red delicious if I’m making pie, same thing goes for granny smith apples.” Angel says with a smile, “Maybe I can see if I can get my hands on some bourbon and make a bourbon apple pie.” 

“A pie?” MacCready asks confusedly as he picked a few of the apples, “Why would you do that?” 

“I do love to bake, and making a bourbon apple pie wouldn’t be that hard.” Angel tells him as she slid down the ladder, “I’m done.” 

“How the he-heck did you pick them so fast?” Maccready asks her, as Danse and Maxson share a look. 

“I'm used to apple picking, I went a lot before the war. I'm going to go see Luna, meet you back at the farm house.” Danse elbowed Maxson, as the young elder got the message.

“Angel I'll escort you back to the house.” Maxson tells her. Angel looked over at Nick and Hancock, both were giving a thumbs up or urging her to go with the elder. 

“If you want.” Angel tells as she cracks her neck and shoulders. Why was she having so much neck and shoulder pain?

The pair headed back to the farm house exiting the orchard, they passed Cogsworth who was assisting a few of the mister farmhands. And the two knights who were busy doing some heavy lifting, while the two paladins were also lifting crates of apples. 

“This place is very peaceful.” Arthur comments, as he watched some kid play with a dog, “It’s like the war never happened.” 

Angel let out a soft chuckle, “It does feel like that doesn’t it? Here, and spring blossoms, and a few other farms. Like they were untouched by everything.” 

“I'm glad there is some peace and kindness left in this world.” Arthur comments as he watches the kids. 

“Arthur there’s something I need to ask you.” Angel says as she sights as she slapped him on the arm, “Why the hell are you still attacking my settlements?” 

Maxson let out a weary sigh as he pitched the bridge of his nose, “Teagan has gone against my orders… again.” 

“No, fucking shit. The last two weeks I’ve gotten nothing but none stop reports about this. I am very close to luring this man out and having mac kill him.” Angel states with a slight growl in her voice. Which Maxson found to be cute.

“What would you have me do? He goes against my orders, and doesn’t seem to care about how his actions are affecting you or your settlements” Arthur tells her. 

Angel let out a snort and then she smiled, “Arthur may I purpose a deal with you?” 

“What kind of deal?” 

“Well as you know none of the roads here in the Commonwealth are safe, more so if you're a cavern. And my mintumen can only do so much. I’m thinking what if the caverns had a little extra muscle.” Angel asks, giving him a smirk. 

Arthur let out a chuckle, “I see what does the brotherhood gets out of this deal of yours.” 

“Simply, supplies. Lilith gave us extra supplies and told me to give them to you. Your men offers us protection and I’ll make sure you get the supplies. On top of that tomorrow I’ll come to the airport and help you set up a garden.” Angel tells him as they come to the farm house. 

“Where would we plant a garden?” He asks. 

“The open area with the check in desk by the bus. You know the spot , it's right by the entrance to the airport. You get a group of paladins and knights with some power fisits and some super sledges to clear away the rumble and trash and to break up the concrete you’ll find dirt to plant.” Angel explains as she opened the door to the farm house, as she licked her lips, “I smell fresh bread bowls with cheddar broccoli soup.” 

“How long have you been thinking this over?” He asks her. 

“A week, in fact I’ll give you two of our mister farm hands on one condition.” 

“And what condition is that?” 

“You let me pick the person who is in charge of organizing the patroles.” 

“That’s fair.” Arthur tells her as Angel could only smile.

************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Thankfully lunch with Luna was uneventful. Except for Luna getting MacCready to have seconds, stating that he was too skinny and needed some meat on his bones. Luna brought up knowing a tanner and a leathersmith, saying that if they have had any leather to pass it onto her. She would pay the tanner and the smither to make them goods. And Luna gave them some extra supplies for the brotherhood. Finally they left and headed back to the castle. 

“Man, what a day.” Angel mutters as she plucks a ripe apple out of the basket. 

“It was certainly something.” Arthur agrees as he leaned against the wagon. 

“Don’t be like that.” Angel says as she rubbed the apple on her shirt, “You got supplies for the borthood and you got a nice deal. I call today a win.” 

Arthur raised an eyebrow as Angel took a bite from her apple, “I didn’t appreciate that Lilith embarrassed you, or made you talk about that.” 

“It was par for the course back before the war. Alphas would do it all the time.” Angel tells him with a mouth full of apple, “ _He_ did it to me all the time. _He_ would set me up on blinds dates, with alphas that were twice my age. And they would creepy as all fuck.” 

Arthur didn't respond right away as he took in a deep breath, “Angel who is this man you keep bringing up?” 

“He’s no one.” Angel whispers as she looks down at her apple.

“He must be someone if you keep bringing him up and talking about him like that.” 

Angel took a bite from the apple, “It’s not someone I like to talk about. He wasn’t a good person. And he made my life hell, all because of how I was born.” She admits. Arthur was ready to reach over and give her comfort when he heard something. He lunged for Angel knocking her down to the floor of the wagon. 

“The fuck?” Angel growls as Arthur was,covering her. Arthur opened his mouth to say something when they both heard a gunshot.

End of line 


	21. Chapter 21

Angel could only blink at her current situation. Maxson was on top of her, he had pinned her arms to the side and was lying on top of her. She was about to ask why, when she heard a gun go off. Fuck was it raiders? Was it gunners? Or was it super mutants? It was very hard to tell.

“Fuck what's going on?” Angel asks, wiggling out from Maxson. Angel quickly stood her hand going for her gun, while Maxson stood in front of her. 

Angel's answer came from someone outside of the wagon, “GUNNERS!” One of the guards yells followed by more yelling and gun fire.

“Fuck.” Both Angel and Maxson yell.

“Angel stands behind me.” Maxson warns/ tells her, as he checks his gun over. 

“The hell I can fight.” Angel hisses at him. 

“Angel!” He orders, and she goes stiff, “Gunners aren't raiders, they are far more dangerous and they will kill you!”

Angel felt frozen, she was afraid, “I-I-I.” She repeated as she could hear the gunshots and then he appeared at the opening of the wagon. It was a gunner brandishing a combat rifle.

The gunner smirked, “Well if isn't General Grey the colonel wants to meet you. But first.” The man's gun was aimed at Angel's leg, the bastard was going to cripple her and Maxson saw red as he shoved Angel to the side. 

The bullet grazed his side. Maxson knees buckled as he fell to the floor of the wagon, his hand going to his side. Angel let out a growl as she shot the man in the head killing him. The gunner fell down dead as a door knob.

“Fuck.” Maxson growled as blood was sweeping out from between his fingers. Angel wasted no time looking for her bag and she quickly pulled out a first aid kit.

“Shit, were going to need to bandage that.”Angel tells him. Maxson let out a growl as he held his side. “Look I know you're in pain, but if we don't bandage that you'll bleed out.”

“Do you know what you're doing?” Maxson asks her.

“I know basic first aid, nothing special. But, it will hold up till you see a doctor.”Angel tells him, as she removed a gauze, a cloth and a small brown bottle. Maxson removed his hand from the wound and Angel let out a gasp.

The bullet had grazed his side tearing up a hole in his jumpsuit, leaving a long, red, and bloody gash. Angel quickly poured the contents of the bottle onto a cloth and wiped away the blood. Maxson let out a growl and a hiss. 

“Sorry.” Angel whispers as the fighting was dying down. When she was happy that the wound was cleaned she applied the gauze. “And thank you.” 

“You welcome.” Maxson tells her, “What were they doing out here.” 

“They were probably going to rub the wagons, we’ve been having issues with them and raiders doing this. So I’m grateful to have some extra help from now on.” Angel tells him as she made sure the gauze was on, “That should do it.” 

“Arthur, Angel are you alright?” Danse asks skidding to a halt but then he saw the gauze on his side, “Arthur!” 

“It’s just gaze, are the gunners dead?” Maxson asks. 

“Yes, sir. Those we didn’t kill ran away. Seems like they were trying to rob the wagons of there supplies.” Danse explains. 

Angel let out a sigh, “Did they manage to take anything?” 

“No, we stopped them before they could. And it looks like the only one injured was elder Maxson.” Danse reports. 

“Good, Danse please make sure everyone is ready to head out once you loot the gunner of anything of value.” Angel requests of him. 

“I will.” Danse says leaving the pair alone. 

Angel let out a second sigh, “Fuck a duck.” She mutters. 

“I won’t let them get away with this.” Maxson vows. 

“That would be nice.” Angel tells him with a pitiful smile. ‘So I was thinking.”

“Oh?” Maxson asks as he sat down with a wince. He was going to ask Cade for some medX when he got back.

“So how about tomorrow night, you and whoever you pick to head the cavern guards come to dinner?” Angel asks, blushing a little.

Maxson's face was hot as he blushed, “That is a very kind offer. And I accept.”

“Really?” Angel asks with a bright and cheerful smile on her face. “I’ll even make a bourbon apple pie.” 

“Yes, really.”

************************************************************************************************************************************************************

And that is the last of the goods in general.” Finn tells Angel. The pair were watching as the wagons got loaded up supplies for the brotherhood. It was bright and early the next day, and Angel was not happy that she was woken up at the ass crack of dawn. Nor was she happy that it was Danse that woke her up. 

“Wicked thank you Finn.” Angel tells her taking a sip from her tea cup. 

“If that's all general, I'm needed at drills.” Finn tells her, turning on her heel to leave.

“Actually could you please tell Cogsworth the following. Have the steaks cooked with rosemary, garlic in the mashed potatoes, fire roast the bell peppers and squash, and have the buttermilk biscuits dough ready to go when I get in. And please have ready, bourbon, the apples cut and ready to be cooked, the butter, sugar, ginger and lemon juice.” Angel asks of her with a smile.

“You got it boss. Those I do have one question.” Finn asks her, “Why are you giving the brotherhood the map you made.”

“Easy, they need it more than we do.” Angel tells her while laughing. “But, we do need to extend the olive branch of peace with them.”

Finn let out a huh, “You know, I've noticed that you and elder Maxson have been getting close.”

Angel went crimson and nearly dropped her tea cup, “That is no one business.”

“Sure, kid, sure.” Finn tells her with a knowing smile and wink.

“FINN!” Angel screams as she drops her cup and got a few odd looks from some of the people nearby. 

“Umm boss are we leaving?” Macready asks with an awkward cough.

“Yes.” Angel tells him, with a frown as she joined Maccready, Cogsworth and Struges.

************************************************************************

Angel was impressed, the reception area had a complete makeover. All the garbage, furniture, and concrete was gone leaving the soil. In the soil were neat rows, rows ready for planting. All around the new garden were turrets and concrete walls, a smart move. Angel, MacCready, Cogsowrth and Struges we're meant by elder Maxson, Brandis, and two men and a woman Angel didn’t know. The woman and one of the men were alphas and the other man was an omega.

“Good morning elder Maxson, paladin Brandis.” Angel greets with a warm smile. 

“General Gray it's an honor to see you again.” Brandis greets back. Brandis looked better, he wasn’t as thin looking or worn out. His hair and bread had been cut and trimmed giving him a more serious appearance. 

“And good morning to you as well general. I would like you to meet the head of logistics Knight Sergeant Gavil, knight Lucia and Initiate Clarke. The four of you will be working closely together from here on out.” Maxson explains, “As you may not know logistics is in charge of all food rations and supplies that the brotherhood has gathered.” 

“Or stolen.” Angel bitterly tells him with a forced smile. 

“Or that. Also I would like you to know that I’ve placed paladin Brandis in charge of the caverns. His experience in the wasteland, along with his drive made him my top pick.” Maxson tells her. 

“You know I was hoping you would pick Brandis.” Angel tells him. 

“The honor is all mine, I am forever grateful.” Brandis tells her. 

“I’m sorry to cut this short, but myself, Brandis and the proctors have much to discuss about our new alliance.” Maxson tells her. 

“That’s fine, once we're done here, we're heading back to the castle for dinner. Which Brandis is invited to attend as well.” Angel tells him. 

“Thank you for the kind offer.” Brandis tells her. 

“I’ll take my leave now. If you have any questions, Knight Sergeant Gavil will be happy to answer them.” Maxson tells her and leaves with Brandis. 

“Knight Sergeant Gavil, shall we begin?” Angel asks him. 

“We shall, logistics is at your disposal.” Gavil tells her. 

“Wonderful. ALRIGHT WORKING IN PAIRS I WANT EVERYTHING THAT IS ON THE WAGON TAKE OFF AND PUT IN GROUPS! SALTED MEATS GOES TOGETHER, CANNED AND PRESERVED FRUITS AND VEGETABLES ARE ANOTHER GROUP! KEEP ANY AND ALL LIVESTOCK TOGETHER, AND ANYTHING THAT LOOKS LIKE CLOTHING KEEP TOGETHER. DAIRY AND HERBS ARE TO BE KEPT COLD. I was told you have a working cooler we can use?” Angel asks Gavil. The brotherhood and the minutemen got to work unloading. 

“We do, I’ll make sure all the food rations are kept cold.” He tells her. 

“Very good most of the meat is salted but anything else will be needed to be kept cold. We also brought vegetables seedlings for you to plant along with a pair of mister farmhands. The big guy in overalls, Strugers is going to build you the pens and hen house you that you will need. And Cogsworth wrote all the recipes and gardening tips he could think of.” Angel explains, handing him a pair of books. The mister handy had gone to town writing two books for the brotherhood.

“What’s your game?” Lucia asks with a hint of venom in her voice, watching as the seedlings were brought over. 

“I’m sorry?” Angel asks, cocking her head to the side, in confusion and blinking innocently at her.

“Your game? Why are you doing this?” Luica asks again. 

“Lucia.” Gavil snaps at her, “You don’t need to answer her, it’s clear as day that you're doing this to help the brotherhood. It's a kind and thought out service. One we are grateful for.” 

Angel could only smirk as she walked up to Lucia, the knight was a tad taller then Angel, but that didn’t bother her. “I’m doing this for purely selfish reasons. You see dear.” Angel overly sweetly says, “I was sick and fucking tired of you asshats stealing and hurting my people. As I told elder asshole, I was very close to killing the person in charge of stealing and hurting my people.”

Lucia was ready to say or do something, she was gearing up to when Gavil set her off to go help unload. “Why did you tell her that?” 

“She hates me already, why not have some fun?” Angel asks with a shrug, “So Gavil do you know about the sister sisters planting?” 

“No?” 

“Alright so, sow six kernels of corn an inch deep in the flat part of the mound, about ten inches apart in a circle of about 2 feet in diameter. Don’t plant the beans and squash until the corn is about 6 inches to 1 foot tall. This ensures that the corn stalks will be strong enough to support the beans.

The beans’ role is to fix nitrogen in the soil, which is needed for strong corn production. You can grow several pole bean varieties without worrying about hybrids, but just plant one variety per hill. Once corn is 6 inches to 1 foot tall, plant four bean seeds, evenly spaced, around each stall About a week later, plant six squash seeds, evenly spaced, around the perimeter of the mound. See the spacing for squash on your packet; usually this is about 18 inches apart. You may wish to put two seeds in each hole to ensure germination.” Angel explains. 

“Thank you for the tips, general.” He tells her.

“Your welcome.”

************************************************************************************************************************************************************

“Hey boss, you got a minute?” MacCready asks later, that night.

“Sure mac what’s up?” Angel asks him. It had been an eventful night, with Maxson and Brandis being over. Angel had excused herself after dinner, while Maxson, and the others were talking about there alliance and the synth problem. It was the only real issue everyone could agree on. Angel had been happy to sit on the wall and draw, while she looked out to spectacle island. That was till MacCready found her. 

“Do you mind if I join you?” He asks, as Angel was sitting on one of the many benches that were on the walls.

“You don’t need to ask mac. Go ahead.” She tells him. 

MacCready didn’t say anything as he sat down, and saw Angel’s drawing of the island, “This-this-this is hard for to say.” He mumbles starting to plan with his hands.

“Take your time.” 

“I wanted to say thank you.” He tells her, which got a confused look from Angel, “If it wasn’t for you I would still be stuck at the third rail, getting drunk, and not getting any work. When I left the gunners, I guess I didn’t leave it all behind me. Once people found out that I used to run with them they would try tail and run but not you. You learned about my past and didn’t care. And you helped me get rid of Winlock and Barnes. Which I know wasn't easy, but thank you."

“You don’t have to thank me for any of that.” Angel tells him. 

“Yea, yea I do. You don’t ever find that type of kindness out here. It’s almost unheard of. I wanted to ask one more favor, if I could.” MacCready asks, 

Angel nodded her head yes, “I have a son back in the capitol, he’s a good boy going to be an alpha like his old man. But, he got sick. One day he was playing outside on my farm and the next thing I know he was falling down sick. He had these blue boils on his body. I came east, trying to find a cure. I almost gave up trying to find hope. 

A few months before we met, I bumped into a guy named Sinclair who claimed his buddy caught some kind of disease. I thought he was wasting my time until he said his partner broke out in blue boils. They dug up information about a cure at a place called Med-Tek Research. They even managed to grab the building's lockdown security codes. Unfortunately, Sinclair's buddy died before they were able to break into the facility. I mean, there's no way that's a coincidence, right? Med-Tek has to be the place.” MacCready explains. 

Angel let out a hum, “We’ll go tomorrow morning, I’ll grab Danse and Hancock and we’ll get this cure.” 

“Are you for real boss?” MacCready asks in shock. 

“I am, no kid deserves to die. I’ll help.” She tells him with a smile. 

End of line 


	22. Chapter 22

Angel woke slowly, she woke to feeling warm and content. She woke to her pillow being warm and breathing. Wait what? Angel shot straight up with her heart in her throat. But then quickly calmed down. It was just Maxson. Maxson, who was sleeping in the same bed as her, the leader of the brotherhood of steel was sleeping in the same bed as an unbonded omega. God fucking damnit. This was highly inappropriate. Angel looked to see that Maxson wasn't wearing any type of shirt, and in her rush to sit up, the sheets and blanket had been pulled down to his waist. Maxson was sleeping without a shirt on and Angel could feel her face heating up, to see that the young elder was a brawny and hairy man.

The young elder was sleeping on his back, with an arm tucked under the pillow while his other arm was sprayed out where Angel was sleeping. And if Angel was being honest he was rather handsome. While he slept he didn't look like the big tough and scary alpha he had to be, right now he was a person. Angel let out a soft sigh as she reached over and traced his scar on his face, the scar tissue was old and felt rough, yet smooth at the same time. Angel had been dying to ask how he got such a gruesome scar on his face but she wasn't brave enough to ask. 

_"I would love to draw this."_ Angel thinks, and why couldn't she? As quietly as she could, Angel grabbed her sketch pad and a pencil and started to draw. And as she was drawing it came back to her why they were sharing a bed.

************************************************************************************************************************************************************

_Angel had been walking back to the common area, after her cheat with MacCready. She had gotten some drawing done, but could feel a cold chill and a few rain drops. And by the time she made it to the exposed halls of the castle, it had started to downpour._

_'Fuck.' Angel hisses as she pulled her jacket closer to her body._

_While the rain was good for the gardens, everyone was stuck here. Angel let out a soft sigh as she leaned against the wall. Angel did like rain storms as hey were calm and relaxing, and they inspired her. Angel nearly jumped out of her skin when a loud clap of thunder, echoed over the castle followed by a bright flash of lighting. Great, it was one of those storms._

_"Damnit." Angel mutters rubbing a hand over her face._

_“Something wrong?” Arthur asks, appearing out of nowhere, much to Angel’s annoyance._

_“Thunder storm.” Angel simply tells him, as a loud clap of thunder echoed overhead. Angel nearly jumped out of her skin due to fright._

_Maxson didn’t say a word, as he offered Angel his hand. “Would you like some company back to your room?”_

_“That would be kind. Please don’t tell anyone about this. I’ve never been a fan of thunderstorms.” Angel tells him taking his hand._

_Maxson let out a soft chuckle, “Your secret is safe with me.”_

************************************************************************************************************************************************************

They chatted for a bite, before going to bed. Not that Angel was complaining she hadn’t slept that well in a good long while. Not since her time at the police station. Angel let out a sigh as she placed her sketch pad down. She had to get ready for the day. She had plans today and she was more than happy to help MacCready. The man had done nothing but been helpful to her. She owned him a big thank you. As Angel took a hot shower, and got ready, as she sat down at her desk polishing her boots, when Maxson woke up. The young elder sat up, and Angel had to hide her wince when she saw the bandages on his side. 

“Well good morning.” Angel greets as she is dressed in her vault suit, jeans, and a soft red shirt for the day. Her gloves, jacket, belt and hamlet were off to the side. 

“Good morning Angel.” Maxson greets, but then his face went crismon, “I see we fell asleep last night. I want to say sorry for that.” 

Angel shrugged as she was happy with how her boots looked, “It’s fine, we didn’t do anything. So were good.” Maxson opened his mouth to say something when here came a knock at the door, Angel said entered, and in came Curie.

“Bonjour aîné Maxson et mademoiselle Angel.” Curie greets in a cheer voice. 

“Good morning Curie, what brings you by?” Angel asks, stuffing her feet into her boots. 

“Monsieur Cogsworth asked me to fetch you for breakfast.” Curie tells her, “Oh dear aîné Maxson what happened to your side?” 

“He was grazed by a bullet.” Angel tells her pulling her shirt on, and then her belt. 

Curie let out a few tuts, as she went to look at Maxson side. Maxson went stiff, “Please don’t be afraid aîné Maxson. I just wish to check your wound.” 

“She’s very good at what she does.” Angel sings songs out, as she did her hair up into a bun, placed her bannda on and then the hamlet. Maxson gave Curie a nod of approval and went to look at his side. 

“Your stitching is holding up well, no signs of infection or redness. You're healing up well.” Curie praises. 

“Good to know. Elder Maxson, I am sorry to leave you right now, but there are matters I need to attend to.” Angel tells him. 

“It’s quite alright Angel. May I come back tonight? We didn’t have a chance to talk much last night.” Maxson asks her. 

“That would be nice.” Angel tells him with a smile. 

************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Angel, Danse, Hancock and MacCready arrived at Med- tek in the early morning. In the front of the building were dead fearls ghouls. 

“Huh no new ghouls? Guess you're good at your job Danse.” Angel comments tapping her bat against her shoulder. “Alright mac what’s the plan?” 

“Jacob, he gave me the password to the director's office.The whole building’s been locked down since the bombs feel.” MacCready explains. “We head up to the office, use the password and lift the lockdown. From there we head down to labs and find the cure.” 

“And all that is stopping us from getting to the office is a small army of fearls.” Hancock mutters, checking his combat shotgun over, “This better be worth it mac.” 

“It will be.” MacCready tells him. At least he hoped it would be.

“Cut the chatter we move now.” Danse orders. 

Angel let out a snort as she moved to the enter building right as a fearl came out of nowhere, Angel tilted her head to the side as she bashed the thing’s head in. “You guys coming?” 

The lobby was a mess of broken ceiling, broken stairs and ruined furniture. And now dead fearls, the group started to move through the building and up to the top floor. 

“So kid.” Hancock says slinging his arm over Angel's shoulder, “I heard that elder Maxson was seen leaving your room this morning.” 

Angel's face went crimson, “I-I-I don't know what you're talking about.” 

Hancock could only smirk, “Sure you don’t. So tell dear uncle Hancock what happened.” 

“Nothing happened. We talked, and fell asleep.” Angel quickly explains trying to pull her hemelt down to cover her face.

Maccready shared a devious smile with Hancock as he slung his arm over Angel's shoulders “You sure about that kid? You're blushing pretty bad.” 

“I mean it's nothing, like nothing happened.” She mutters looking down at the floor.

“Nothing happened yet. It's just a matter of time.” Hancock dreamily says, “Just you wait kid. You two are going to make a cute couple.” 

“You're both vile.” Angel hisses.

“I would say you need to keep quiet and stop talking.” Danse hisses at the trio, “But, a marriage between Angel and elder maxson would benefit the commonwealth.” 

“I'm sorry what.” Hancock, Angel and Maccready all say in disbelief.

Danse sighted as he killed a ghoul, “Angel is the general of the minutemen she had won the respect and compassion of the people. Elder Maxson is in charge of the brotherhood, while the brotherhood presence has not been good so far. But, we have made progress winning over the people.” 

“What does that have to do with the kid?” Maccready asks him killing another ghoul.

“If they get married they can bring peace and hope to everyone. And with both factions working together we can end the institute.” Danse proudly tells them.

“Fuck a duck.” Angel growls, out as she shoves Hancock and MacCready off her, “YOU SHOULD LIKE HIM!” She yells at them. 

Danse, MacCready, and Hancock all shared a worried and concerned look, “Who do we should like?” Danse asks her. 

Angel shook her head, “Can we just get to the office and get his done.” Angel angrily hisses walking off. 

They made it to the office killing more ghouls that came out of the woodwork trying to kill them. MacCready used the password and the lockdown was lifted. The small group headed down to the sub level to the labs. 

Angel nearly vomited and gagged on the foul stench that clung to the basement. “What the fuck is that smell?” Angel coughs using her shirt to cover her mouth. 

“Death, rot, decay and the stench of fearls.” Danse answers, “Angel, are you okay?” 

Angel was ready to answer but ran off to a corner and vomited. “I’ll take that as a no.” Hancock tells him, going over to Angel. The ghoul started to rub Angel’s back as she emptied her stomach.

“Fuck, I hope that cure is still here.” MacCready growls. 

“That’s the second time you said cure. What are we looking for, MacCready.” Danse demands. 

MacCready sighted, “My son Duncan he’s sick. I came here looking for a cure that will fix him.” 

“You have a son?” Danse asks in shock. 

“Yea, he’s ten. I left him with an old friend while I came here looking for some hope.” MacCready tells him, “Angel was more than ready to help me.” 

“Why not leave with his mother? Unless? I’m sorry MacCready.” Danse apologies 

“Thanks it's fine. I just want to do something good for him.” MacCready admits, “Hey kid, you alright?” 

“Should be.” Angel tells him with a shaky thumbs up. 

“Let’s move out.” Danse orders, as Angel took a quick sip from her canteen. 

The deeper the group went, the worst it got. Dead bodies, and ghouls, broken floors and ceilings and turrets were everywhere. Angel had to duck behind a wall to take out a turret. 

“What the fuck were they doing here.” Angel growls shooting out the turret. 

“I started thinking maybe human experiments.” Hancock supplies taking out a ghoul. 

“You're probably on the money.” Angel hisses as the last of the turrets are taken out. 

They finally made it to the last level of the building and waiting for them was a large room.

“This is it!” MacCready cheers, “Jacob said that the cure is through those doors.” 

“Twenty caps we run find a ghoul.” Angel whispers to Hancock. 

“I’ll take that action.” Hancock tells her. MacCready opened the door and what stumbled out, was not what they were expecting. Danse acted first and grabbed Angel and pulled her behind him. 

“WHAT THE FUCK IS A PUTRID GLOWING ONE DOING HERE!” MacCready yells opening fire on the thing. 

“Gee, I wonder why!” Angel says with an eye roll. The thing took so much abuse before being put down by Danse. 

“Hancock you okay?” Angel asks as the ghoul. Who was slowly bleeding from a set of nasty gashes on his arm, 

“I’ll be fine kid.” Hancock tells her as he looks down at the wound, “It's nothing that can’t be fixed later.” 

Angel sighted and removed her hamlet and undid her bandana from her hair. “What are you doing?” He asks watching as she tied the bandana around his arm. 

“We can’t have you bleeding out.” Angel tells him with a smile. She then undid the braid, letting her hair fall down. Her hair was down in a now messy fishtail braid. Hancock gave her a small smile as thanks.

“GUYS I FOUND IT!” MacCready yells holding a vile. 

“Holy shit.” Angel gasps, “Where to now mac?” 

“Good neighbor to see Daisy. She can get this to the capital and then to Duncan.” MacCready tells her, with a bright smile on his face.

End of line 


	23. Chapter 23

The group opted to fly back to Good Neighbor. They were tired, hungry and just wanted the day to end. MacCready clutched the vile close to his chest. He was muttering about how this would save his son. Angel was quiet, as she dug through her bag and pulled something out. That something was a thing envelope. Inside the envelope was a letter addressed to her brother Charon. If Mac was right she could send the letter to the capital wasteland along with the cure for his son.

“Whose the letter for kid?” Hancock asks as he took a long drag from his cigarette. 

“Oh, it's for my older brother Charon.” Angel tells him, “Mac told me he was alive and a ghoul. I just want him to know I’m okay.” 

“Well ain’t that sweet.” Hancock coes. “So I take it he’s an alpha.” 

“Pretty much. I was raised in a house of alphas. And my brother was more than willing to kick the ass of any alpha that got to close.” Angel tells him with a smile. “Man I miss those days.” 

“Guess some things don’t change.” MacCready mutters with a yawn, “He found himself a sweet little omega named Roy.” 

“Charon got mated?” Angel asks in disbelief as her jaw hits the floor. 

“Yea about five or so years ago. Roy did manage to save the wasteland from the enclave, and gave us clean water.” MacCready explains cracking his neck, “Nice enough guy. He’s a doctor I think.” 

“Huh, good for him.” Angel mutters, tucking the letter back into her bag, “How’s the arm Hancock?” 

“It's fine kid. I’ll have the doc patch me up when we land.” He tells her. 

“Good.” Angel tells him with a smile. 

The group landed in Good Neighbor an hour later. MacCready gave the cure to Daisy and told the others drinks were on him. Angel told them she would catch up after chatting with Daisy. 

“Something on your mind sweetheart?” Daisy asks her, Angel wordlessly pulls out the letter, “I see who's it going to?” 

“My brother's name is Charon. I’m told he’s a ghoul.” Angel tells her. 

Daisy let out a hun, “I’ve heard of him through my contacts. Don’t worry, it will get to him.”

“How much?” Angel asks, pulling out her bag of caps. 

“You put those caps away, this one is one the house.” Daisy tells her. 

“I can’t have you do that.” 

“Yes, you can. Do you know how much good you’ve done for us? Well it’s a lot. All the food, medicine, warm clothing, and seedlings. You've done good by us.” Daisy tells her. 

“If you're sure?” Angel asks with a sigh. 

“I am now, get on to the third rail.” Daisy says with a smile. 

“I’m going, I’m going.” Angel tells her to leave with a smile . 

************************************************************************************************************************************************************

** Two weeks later the Ninth Circle **

“What the hell are we listening to?” Roy yells as he enters the Ninth Circle. There was some song that he had never heard before. It wasn't bad per say but, it wasn't good either.

“It’s called music smoothskin.” Winthrope yells back with a laugh. 

“This isn’t music, it's tourte.” Roy yells back, as he and Charon sit down next to Patchwork and Winthrope. 

“The song is called ‘ _Blue Suede shoes’_ by elvis presley. How dare you have no taste.” Winthrope tells him. 

Roy cocked an eyebrow, “I have taste and it's him.” As he pointed his thumb at Charon. Charon let out a groan but accepted the beer from Carol. 

“How have you been kid, we haven’t seen you for three weeks.” Patchwork asks while enjoying his whiskey. 

Roy and Charon both let out a groan, as the human pushed some his black hair out of the way to show off a scar on his forehead, “We ran into some issues up river. We don’t want to talk about it but I get a new scar.” Roy explains, rubbing it in annoyance.

“Hey smoothskin.” Willow yells coming into the bar, “I got a letter for your bitter half.” 

“A letter?” Charon asks shocked, “From who? And don't call me his bitter half.” 

“Don’t know. It came with a cavern from the Commonwealth. And if the shoe fits.” She tells him, while throwing the letter at him. 

“Why thank you.” Charon grumples. The ghoul picked the letter up and his heart stopped, he knew the handwriting but that was impossible, he torn the letter open, 

‘Dear Charon,

It’s been roughly two hundred and ten years since we last saw each other. I can still remember when you called from McClintock, telling how dangerous it was getting. Or how you weren’t sure i f you were coming home or not. I won’t lie, I was pissed at the idea of you not coming home. But, I’m sure you have questions. And the big one is how the fuck am I still alive? It all started the day the bombs dropped. The sirens went off, me, Shaun and uncle Ken ran to the vault that was on top of the hill. I was scared, and nervous. Everyone was panicking there was screaming and yelling and I had a death grip on uncle Ken’s hand. Vault tec tricked us, they told us that we would be safe and I guess we were. But, they put us on ice. We were placed in these pods that froze us. I didn’t know how much time passed before he came. His name was Kellogg, and I killed him. 

At some point we were released from our slumber. When he and this woman in a hazmat came to the vault, they went to uncle Ken's pod and took Shaun and killed him. I couldn't do anything, I was useless. When I left the vault I was scared and alone. I didn't know what I was doing, hell I still don't. I've made friends, allies, and enemies. I've done good and bad. And I don't know what to feel. I miss you and uncle Ken so much. And I know uncle Edward misses him. And yes he is alive. 

I hope you and your mate can come to the Commonwealth and we can see each other again.

Love, your favorite sister.

Angel.

P.S. MacCready told me about you and your mate. You can thank him next time you see him. I also found a mate. And I picked him out and not the asshole. He's a massive dick and a prick but he's doing better.

Charon read and reread the letter. His sister and uncle were alive and well. But, his uncle, the one that stuck up for him, the one who cared for him, was now dead. And his poor sister had to kill the killer. Charon let out a growl as he stood and left the bar. Roy and the others looked on with worry. What was in the letter? 

End of line 


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Getting close to the end folks.

Winter finally arrived in the Commonwealth, it came hard and quick. And it nearly froze everyone across the state. Or it would have if, it wasn’t for the fact that they were ready. Lilith and Luna had gone to great lengths to help make sure settlers of the Commonwealth were ready for the cold harsh winter ahead of them. In fact Lilith had gone so far as to insulate Angel’s army jacket, while Luna had knitted her scarf and a hat. Both were knitted in minutemen blue with the fractions crest on them.

“It’s a shame that Arthur can’t join us today.” Angel chirps as she, Danse and MacCready boarded the plane. 

“A real shame.” MaCready mutters with an eye roll, “But, you know how us alpha’s get. Once our runts hit we got to take care of it.” 

“I hope he’s doing okay.” Angel adds as they took off. 

“He’s fine. Arthur will be back to normal by tomorrow.” Danse tells her with a smile, “Angel you didn’t tell us where we are headed.” 

“I didn’t? Sorry about that. Were headed for Salem. I heard from some of our scout’s that the town is still in one piece. More or less.” Angel explains with a shrug. 

“Thinking you can turn it into a new settlement?” MacCready asks, as Angel nodded her head yes. “Might be worth it, might not.” 

“What do you mean?” Angel asks him with a head title. 

“I heard some rumors, awhile back. The town’s haunted.” MacCready states, “Like it’s haunted by the ghosts of the people who died when the bombs dropped.” 

“Don’t be absurd. Ghost’s aren’t real.” Danse says with an eye roll. 

“You sure about that?” MacCready asks him, “Strange shit happens out here.” 

“Positive.” 

“Would be cool to see a ghost.” Angel admits softly. 

“I wouldn’t get your hopes up. Ghosts aren’t real.” Danse repeats withlobgh a venom in voice as he casted a glare at MacCready. 

“You keep telling yourself that, I’m sure you'll convince one of us.” MacCready teases with a smirk. Danse gave him a glare, but said nothing.

***********************************************************************************************************************************************************

Salem had been deserted. There were clear signs of a struggle, bullet holes, fresh dead bodies. Or as fresh as dead bodies got out in the wasteland. The trio walked around being careful, but then they arrived at the witchcraft museum. Angel was careful she approached she was getting an off putting vibe from the place. She was ignoring Danse and MacCready fighting over if they should leave or not. She didn’t get why they were at each other's throats today, was it an alpha thing? When she got to the side of the museum, she let out a scream. On the ground was a mangled corpse, and next to it was a holotape. Gagging Angel picked up the bloody tape and played, in hope finding out what happened.

_“Jefferies! Lee got the recorder working. So, this the sorta detail ya had in mind when you signed up for the Gunners? Hauling luggage from Lynn Woods for some robot butler? What was his name? Welliton? Wellingham?_

_Major Jefferies: Not now, Private. Where's Connors? He's not at his post._

_Private: Oh, uh, sorry sir. The lieutenant said he'd found some tracks, wanted to check them out. Private Martin--_

_Major Jefferies: Tracks? What track... what the hell is that?_

_Private: Oh my... C-Conners? Where, where's the rest of him?_

_Major Jefferies: Jesus. It found us. Sergeant Lee, grab the case! Do not let that thing out of your sight! Everyone inside the museum! Now!_

_Private: Major. Major! What found us!_ ” The holotape caught off, but she saw a blood trail leading into the museum. 

“ANGEL!” Danse and MacCready yelled as they ran over. “What’s wrong?” Danse asks, checking to see if she was hurt. 

“Something’s not right.” Angel tells him, as she looks at the blood trail. “I’m going in.” 

“Ang.” MacCready groans, “We could just ignore the blood trail and head back to the castle.” 

It was a little late for that as Angel went in. MacCready and Danse shared a look as they followed after her. The basement was quite, too quiet. It was filled with junk, dust and cobwebs. And as they walked around trying to find a way up, they heard it. It sounded like footsteps, loud footsteps. The footsteps made the board above them creak and moan, losing more dust and grim. At one point, they spotted a dead body, a body that belonged to a gunner. The thing above them yanked the body back and let out a growl. Angel let out a gasps as she walked backwards into Danse

“Shit.” MacCready hisses, “I hope to God that’s not what I think it is.” 

“I believe it is.” Danse tells him. “We can still turn back.” 

“No, I want to see this through.” Angel tells him, as she took in a deep breath. They made it to the museum floor and there wasn’t anything there. The dsplayes had been wrecked and destroyed and there signs of a struggle. Angel followed the blood trail, and found another dead body. The dead body of a gunner, and around him were eggs. The eggs were cracked and smashed, and next to the gunner was holotape. 

_“A nest full of Deathclaw eggs. A dozen, maybe more. Smashed to bits. Except this one. No wonder they wouldn't tell us what was in that case. If I'd known, I would've personally told the Gunner bosses and that glorified liquor cabinet Wellingham to take those Diamond City caps and stuff 'em. Guess we know why that Deathclaw tracked us all the way from LynnWoods now. We stole her damn kids. Christ, maybe, maybe if we'd just returned the eggs to the nest west of parsons creamery…...Oh hey Momma. You looking for this?” The tape cut off with a loud roar._

Angel looked around the floor, and she found it. She found a pristine deathclaw egg. She gingerly picked the egg up, right as she heard a roar. 

“HOW THE FUCK DID A SAVAGE DEATHCLAW SNECK UP ON US!” MacCready yells, as she heard gun fire. 

“LESS TALKING MORE SHOOTING!” Danse yells as he opens fire. Angel pecked around to see a deathclaw, and then she looked at the egg. The deathclaw was here for the egg. And they were going to die due to the gunners. There was no way in hell she was going to die, thanks to those asshats. But, there was no way she was going to get out the front door. So she looked around, and found a window, she could easily crawl through there. 

“DANSE! MACCREADY! I’M GOING TO RUN TO PARSONS CREAMERY!” Angel yells cradling the egg close to her chest. 

“ANGEL WAIT!” Macready yells just missing the deathclaws, claws. 

“GO IT’S FINE! WE’LL HOLD THIS MONSTER OFF!” Danse orders shooting the monster’s hand off. 

“BE CAREFUL!” Angel yells as she snecks the window.

***********************************************************************************************************************************************************

Angel ran, and ran, she ran till her legs burned. She ran till it was hard to breath, she ran till the cold cut through her jacket. She ran till she couldn’t feel her legs. 

“This was so fucking dumb.” Angel mutters as she stands in the middle of the road panting. Her breath was coming out in puffs as she clutched the egg to her chest. Angel had no clue where she was or if she was close to the deathclaw nest. On top of that she had no idea if Danse and MacCready were okay. She felt like shit for ditching them, but could she help? She had a feeling that she would have been hurt if she tried to help them.

“Fuck a duck.” Angel hisses as she had to think, the holotape said something about Lynn woods and a creamery. She knew that Lynn woods was close or she hoped it was. Angel took in a deep breath as she started to walk, she walked for a mile when she came upon a familiar building. 

“Parson state insane asylum is still standing?” Angel mutters with a sigh of relief. “Maybe uncle Edward is here.” Angel hopped that her uncle Edward was here, she could really use a small win. The asylum was armed to the teeth with merancyies, and they all gave Angel the side eye, but they didn’t attack her. 

“Who are you? What do you want?” A female merancery demands of Angel. 

“I was wondering if Edward Deegan was here?” Angel asks, adjusting her hold on the egg. 

“And if he is? What is your business with him?” She demands. 

“The business of being my niece, Maria.” Edward said out of nowhere and looked very bored and annoyed. 

“UNCLE EDWARD!” Angel happily cheers, as she runs to the ghoul giving him a hug, “I’ve missed you.” 

Edward gave a soft chuckle, as he patted Angel on the back, “Sorry about that kid, been busy. And so have you from what I heard.” 

Angel winced, “Yea, sorry about that. Oh! Can I borrow you?” She asks with a weak smile. 

“Angel? What did you do?” Edward asks, raising an nonexistent eyebrow at her. 

“Can I tell you on the way to Lynn woods?” She asks him as she started to leave

“I’ll be back Maria.” Edward tells her, as he sighed and followed after Angel. On there way to the woods, not only did Angel tell what happened, but she also got a smack to the back of the head. Angel figured she earned that. She was risking her life for a deathclaw after all. 

************************************************************************************************************************************************************

“Angel this is sucide.” Edward hissed as they approached the deathclaw nest.

“Do you have any better ideas?” She hisses back, there was no sign of a deathclaw so that a plus, “I’m just going to set the egg down and then we can go.” 

“Right.” Edward growls through gritted teeth. 

Angel didn’t say anything as she slowly approached the nest she was doing her best to ignore the bones. Both human and animal. She gingerly set the egg down and then saw something. It was a gauntlet that appeared to be made out of a set of severed finger-bones from a deathclaw, joined with hose clamps and a handle attached via threaded rod welded to wire. Angel tilted her head to the side and picked up the weapon right as Edward yanked the back by her jacket and dragged her away from the nest, and this shit storm. How did Angel manage to get herself caught up in these messes? 

“You are never doing that again.” Edward orders, as he dragged the young omega far, far, far away from the nest. 

“At least I got a new toy.” Angel tells him with a bright smile. 

“Angel.” Edward groans while shaking his head. 

“You love me.” 

“For some reason. For some reason.” 

End of line 


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Getting closer to the end

“Do you want this?” Angel asks as she was playing with the deathclaw gauntlet. Angel was sitting on the cold ground, digging the claws of the gauntlet into the dirt. 

“Hmm? No, thank you.” Edward answers as he exhales a puff of smoke. The pair were waiting at the creamery for Danse and MacCready to show up. “Guns are more my style.” 

“It’s not my style either. Hmm I wonder if Elder Maxson would like it?” Angel asks as she slipped the gauntlet on and her arm feel to the ground limp, “Fuck this thing is heavy.” 

“What did you expect?” Edward asks with a soft chuckle, “Where’s your bat?” 

“Back at the castle. Struges is upgrading it or something. Didn’t quite catch his plans for my bat.” Angel admits with a half shrug. 

“Alright, now let’s circle back to Maxson. Thought you hated him.” 

“Well, we're getting to know each other better. And the brotherhood has been very helpful in keeping the carvens safe.” Angel quickly tells him trying to hide her blush, “Besides I know its custom for the alpha to get the omega a courting gift but that tradition went out the window the day the bombs dropped.” 

Edward let out a soft laugh as he stomped out his cigarette, “That reminds me.” 

“What does?” Angel asks with a head title. 

“The gunners and raider have been less than happy with you.” Edward comments, “Seems that since you buffed up the arm guards on your caverns they haven’t been able to steal from them.” 

“And I should care why?” Angel asks, raising an eyebrow, with an eye roll. 

“You should care. There's a chance they might go after you and your settlement's.” 

“Huh, well it's a good thing the settlements are so heavily defended.” Angel dryly tells her uncle. Edward could only shake his head, “Hey did you and Jack want to come to the castle for breakfast in a couple days?” 

“What?” 

“You and Jack, and whoever wants to come to the castle for breakfast in a couple days.” Angel repeats. 

“Sure, I don’t see why not.” Edward tells her with a smile. 

“Great.” Angel tells him with a smile. The pair didn’t have to wait much longer as Danse and MacCready showed and soon they were off to the castle. Maccready quickly pulled Angel in a tight bone crushing hug.

************************************************************************************************************************************************************

“I think we could take Salem.” Angel says as she takes a sip from her tea. Angel and her inner circle were seated in the common room that night. 

“It might be a risk, with the mirelurks and all.” Preston tells her, as he looks over the map.

Angel had to surpass her shutter, she really hated mirelurks. “Hmm maybe if we ask the brotherhood for some knights and paladins with power armour and gatling guns. We might have a chance.”

“There is something you should know.” Nick comments from his seat. “In four days it's going to snow. Don't ask how I know, I just do. And when it snows the mirelurks go into a deep hibernation.”

Angel let out a hum, as she tapped her finger against her tea cup. “This might make things trickey.”

“Not, really.” Nick comments with a smile, “The mirelurks are going to be slow and sluggish. If you set up troops here, and here. And have the brotherhood stand in front and place a few land mines here and here and herd the mirelurks into the town square, it will be open season.”

“Sneaky Nick.” Angel comments with a smirk. “I'll talk to Maxson when he comes over in two days. He’ll be here the day after tomorrow, he needs a rest day after his runt ended.” 

“Poor man.” MacCready dryly says with an eye roll, as he ate his cookie, “Think it's smart?” 

“It is. With the brotherhood behind us we could take any place like Salem. Maybe even Quincy.” Angel tells him with a smile. 

“It would be nice to get Quincy out from under the gunners thumb.” Preston agrees. 

“Uncle Edward was telling me that the gunners and raiders aren’t happy with me.” Angel says with hum, as she took a sip from her tea.

“You don’t seem worried.” Hancock adds. 

“Those bastards can’t touch me.” Angel tells him, “And if they try I got an army.” 

"

“Gunners are smart and clever, and are deadly. Raiders are slow and stupid.” Piper mutters into her tea. 

“That doesn't mean, we shouldn't be careful.” Danse warns, giving Piper a worried look. 

“No one is saying that we shouldn't be careful.” Angel tells him, with a comforting smile. “It's just, I have plenty of people to keep me safe.”

“Fine.” Danse agrees with a huff. 

“Those, do you think Edward will bring Nate?” Maccready asks, which made Angel go stiff.

“God I'm hoping to God not. I'm not in the mood to deal with two alphas.” Angel groans.

“Two alphas vefying for your affections. Oh the horror.” Piper jokes, “But, for real it might get nasty.” 

“Oh what fun, that will be. Something's just don't go away with time do they?” Angel mutters. “Danse think you could keep Nate off of me?” 

“I can try.” Danse says, which made Angel relax.

“Thanks Danse.” 

End of line


	26. Chapter 26

The next day was tense. Things started out well, Maxson arrived first, which made Angel happy. They went to the living room and chatted about Angel’s idea to take back Salem. Maxson was more than happy to help, and then it got better. Angel brought out the deathclaw gauntlet, Maxson’s eyes went wide with shock and joy. He made the comment that it wasn’t normal for an omega to gift 

an alpha, but he was happy. Which made Angel happy.

And then it got bad. Edward, Nate, and Jack arrived. Edward was happy for Angel to meet Jack, and the pair hit off nicely, that was till Nate went to hug Angel. Angel went still, and moved back and into Maxson(Who she didn't know was standing behind her). Maxson let out a warning growl to Nate, and Nate growled back. Something never seems to leave the alpha’s gene pool. The whole breakfast was awkward with Nate and Maxson glaring and growling at each other the whole time. Angel sat there, drinking her tea and trying not let her eye twitch. Or snap at the pair.

When breakfast was finally ended, and Angel was saying goodbye, Nate did reach out to hug Angel again. She moved back, but Nate grabbed her sleeve, and he yanked HARD. There was a loud rip, Angel's eyes went wide, Edward let out a hiss, as the jacket sleeve was ripped off the jacket. Nate looked slightly smug as he tossed the ruined sleeve down to the ground, and then Maxson saw red, and attacked Nate. Long story short Maxson left with a, black eye and smug smirk. Nate, was going to need a doctor. Angel was left trying not to cry, as her jacket was sewed back together by Curie. All and all could have been worst

***********************************************************************************************************************************************************

They attacked Salem two days later, with the minutemen and the brotherhood attacking as one force. Nick had been right, the mirelurks were moving sluggish and slow making them easy pickings. Well, the normal mirelurks that was, a few of the hunters were still going at full force. And by some bad stroke of luck Angel found herself being chased by a hunter. 

“Why the fuck can you spite ACID!” Angel yells as she tries not to get hit by the acid. Not like the lobster could answer her. Angel was moving through the ruined remains of the town, trying to find someplace to hide and to use her assault rifle. Not like the hunter was giving her much choice. Angel had stopped and was busy trying to find a proper escape, when the hunter spit out acid. The acid made contact with the back of Angel’s leg. Angel let out a cry of pain as she stumbled forward and fell to the ground. 

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.” Angel chants into the ground. So this how she was going to die, death by a fucking lobster. Well there were worse ways to die. Angel braced for the attack when a loud bang was heard, followed by a very loud thud. 

“Death from above.” A voice calls from above Angel. Angel sat up, and saw someone. She wasn’t sure who it was. The person was dressed like a minuteman, and he was bald and wearing sunglasses. He was standing on a roof with a sniper rifle. 

Angel, narrowed her eyes, as she sat up, “Who the fuck are you?” She called up, as the man jumped down. 

The man smirked and kicked the hunter, “Just a friend, a friend who wants to help, general.” 

Angel rolled her eyes, she knew this man wasn’t one of her people, “You're not a minuteman.” 

The man was taken back, but didn’t look shocked, “How do you know?” 

“I know just about everyone who works for me. Now who are you, and give me one good reason, why I shouldn’t kill you?” Angel warns as she gets a good looked at her burn. The skin had become dry and leathery, along with patches of black, white and brown, and there was swelling. And she couldn’t feel any pain. 

The man’s lip curled up into a smile, “I came to help.” 

“Are you going to help me up?” Angel asks, offering her hand to the man. 

“Not right this minute. And that wasn’t the type of help I was offering. You need to cut ties with the brotherhood.” He tells her. 

Angel raised an eyebrow, as she lowered her hand, “Cut ties with the brotherhood? Give me one good reason why I should.” 

“There not good for the commonwealth, there going to burn everything in there path.” The man tells her. 

Angel let out a huh sound, “The brotherhood is extreme but, burn everything in there path? Any proof of that?” 

“Have you seen what they do to fearls, super mutants and worst of all synths? What do you think will happen if they find out one of there own is synth?” The man demands. 

“Didn’t know you care for super mutants.” Angel mutters, as she stood. Angel wobbled for a minute, maybe more, as she used her bat to steady herself. 

The man grabbed Angel by the arm and yanked her forward, “They will burn everything in there path, and there is nothing you can do to stop them.” He warns letting go of Angel’s arm.

“I don’t have a need or desire to stop them. There helping us save the commonwealth.” Angel tells him. 

“But, who are they really saving it from?” The man asks, turning on his heel, leaving Angel alone. 

************************************************************************************************************************************************************

The words stuck with Angel the rest of the day, and for the next two days. Curie had put her on bedrest due to her burn wound. And Angel had nothing but time to maul over what the man had said. Who were they saving the commonwealth from? The obvious answer was the Institute and there synths. Angel had yet to make progress in finding them, she had been too busy dealing with everything else to care. As Angel was trying and failing to draw there was a heavy knock at her door. 

“Entre.” Angel orders placing her sketch pad to the side. Maxson came in looking worn and weary. His shoulders were slumped, and he looked nervous. “Something wrong?” 

Maxson didn’t speck as he pulled a holotape from his jacket pocket. Angel’s eyes went wide, it was the missing holotape. When Angel arrived back to the castle after clearing out Salem, she had found a holotape in her jacket and it was addressed to Maxson. She did look at it. It was just a list of letters and numbers, she didn’t plan to give it to him. If Angel was being honest she didn't see why Maxson would care for it. In fact, when Maxson was last here it went missing. 

“You stole that? Why?” She hisses at him. 

“Do you know what this is?” Maxson all but growls at her. 

“A fucking holotape.” Angel growled back at him. 

“Correct, but more accurately it's a list of missing synths.” Maxson states keeping his voice even as she spoke to her as his eyes narrowed, “Were you planning on giving this to me?” 

“No, I wasn’t. I don’t see why it matters. So it’s a list of missing syths.” Angel tells him. 

Maxson let out a deep growl from the base of his throat, Angel didn’t shrink back. “This isn’t any normal list of missing and escaped synths. This list comes straight from the Institute.” 

“The Institute? Why would they give us that?” Angel asks as she cocked her head to the side. 

“For one reason, we checked the names of our people with the list. And one of the escapes, designation M7-97 matched a name on file. Paladin Danse.” Maxson tells her. 

“What? That can’t be right! It must be wrong!” Angel yells at him, as she could feel her heart drop to her stomach. 

“I wish it was wrong. We checked and double check,” Maxson paused to swallow the lump in his throat, “Danse is a synth. And as such, he must be dealt with.”

Angel's heart stopped, she was clutching the sheets under her hands so hard, her knuckles turned white. “YOU CAN’T PLEASE!” Angel yells at him, she was trying not to cry. “You can’t do this please, he’s loyal to you.” 

“ANGEL!” Arthur barks at her, “Danse is a synth, his very existence makes me sick. Therefore he must be dealt with.” 

“YOU CAN’T!” She yells at him, “Please don’t! There has to be something else you can do.” Angel took in a deep breath, and paused before she spoke, “Then why are you here? Are you here to ask me to kill DANSE! I WON’T!” She yells at him, as tears start to prickle in her eyes. 

Arthur took a step back, “I would never ask that of you. I came to tell you what must be done. And that I would be the one going after Danse. He already fled from the airport.” 

“Oh? So you thought you would kill him here? And start a war? Is that what you want? A war on two fronts!?” She bitterly yells at him. 

“Of course not!” Arthur snaps at her as she bowed her head, “I know where the coward is hiding. I only came here to tell you and what I plan to do.” 

“I hope you know that the moment you leave the castle, our alliance is over.” Angel tells him her voice was void of emotion. “We are also done as well.” 

“I understand.” 

“Wonderful, elder Maxson as of this moment we are no longer allies. I do not wish to see you ever again. And don’t think for a moment I won’t kill you if you come here again.” Angel warns. 

“The same can be said to you.” He tells her, leaving. When the door closed, Angel let herself cry. She cried till she was hoarse, and cried harder two hours later when the news of Dasne death reached her. 

End of line 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See you all in Dark Harbour


End file.
